Our Head of Marketing is a perfect core values fit and has the mental capacity to do the job, but she recently started a side business that is eating up her time and focus. She insists she still wants the seat and gets it, but her execution is suffering. How do we handle this GWC™ issue when the constraint is physical and emotional capacity rather than skill?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic capacity issue, which is the third component of the GWC™ tool. Capacity is not just about intelligence or qualifications. It is about having the physical time, the mental bandwidth, and the emotional energy to perform the five core roles of the seat at a high level.

If your Head of Marketing is distracted by an outside business, she no longer has the capacity for her seat. Her drop in execution is the objective proof of this lack of capacity. You cannot ignore this performance gap just because she claims she still wants the seat.

To address this, your Integrator must have a direct, loving, and honest conversation with her. Use your weekly Scorecard numbers and outstanding Rocks to show her the objective reality of her declining performance. Explain that her seat requires undivided focus to support the company's scaling and exit goals.

Ask her to evaluate her own capacity realistically. She may need to make a choice between her side business and her full-time career with your company. If she cannot commit the required focus, she must vacate the seat.

You might be able to transition her to a junior, part-time marketing seat that fits her new capacity constraints, but only if such a seat actually exists on your Accountability Chart. Do not invent a seat just to keep her. If no such seat exists, she must leave the organization.