We have an employee who passed our Core Values assessment with flying colors, but they consistently miss their Rocks and metrics on the leadership team. How do we systematically use GWC to determine whether this person can be coached or must be replaced?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When someone matches your Core Values but fails to deliver results, you have a classic Right Person in the Wrong Seat. It is the hardest personnel dilemma for leadership teams because the individual is loyal, likable, and deeply committed to the culture. But keeping someone in a seat they cannot execute is cruelty disguised as kindness.

Run a rigorous, unemotional GWC™ evaluation against the five roles on their Accountability Chart seat:

- Get It: Do they instinctively comprehend the cadence, challenges, and nuances of the seat without someone having to hold their hand? Getting it is innate intelligence and wiring. If they do not grasp the mechanics, no amount of training will fix it. That is a permanent no.

- Want It: Do they wake up genuinely eager to do this exact job every day? Sometimes loyal leaders burn out or take promotions for prestige, only to despise the administrative or strategic burden. If they do not want it, you cannot instill hunger.

- Capacity: Do they have the emotional, physical, intellectual, and technical bandwidth to execute the seat at your current scale? Unlike Get It and Want It, Capacity can occasionally be coached if the gap is a specific technical skill or time management hurdle.

If the diagnosis is a lack of Get It or Want It, you must replace them in that seat immediately. If it is a coachable Capacity issue, outline three measurable milestones over 30 days. If performance metrics do not turn green, transition them out of the seat.