Our Operations Director has been with the company since we started in my garage twelve years ago. He is a core values match and a personal friend, but as we scale toward twenty million, he is clearly struggling to manage our modern supply chain and AI scheduling tools. How do we run a brutal GWC evaluation on a legacy partner without destroying our relationship?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the most painful decisions a business owner faces, but you must prioritize the health of the organization over individual comfort. You must evaluate this leader using the GWC™ tool: Get It, Want It, and Capacity to do it.
- Get It means they have a deep, natural understanding of the seat, its systems, and its pace.
- Want It means they genuinely want to do the daily work of that seat, not just keep the title or paycheck.
- Capacity means they have the mental, physical, emotional, and time resources to execute the role at your current scale.
For legacy leaders, the issue is almost always Capacity. The seat has grown, but their skills have not. Sit down with him and have an open, honest conversation. Walk through the Accountability Chart and define the operational requirements of the seat today, not five years ago. Frame this using Keith Cunningham's philosophy of looking at the business objectively rather than emotionally. If he fails any of the three GWC™ elements, you have a Right Person, Wrong Seat situation. You must move him out of that seat. Because he fits your core values, search for another seat on the Accountability Chart where he does GWC™ the role, or help him transition out of the business with dignity and support. Keeping him in a seat he cannot handle is unfair to him and toxic to your team.