Our warehouse and fulfillment director has been with us for over a decade, but as our order volume tripled, he continues managing through tribal knowledge and hallway conversations instead of digital systems and metrics. How do we evaluate whether he actually Gets, Wants, and has the Capacity for the evolving seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Tenure is not a substitute for execution. When a business scales, seats change. A seat that required manual effort and personal loyalty at two million dollars in revenue looks completely different at ten million dollars. Relying on tribal knowledge, personal relationships, and crisis management is a clear indicator that the seat has outgrown the individual.

To evaluate this leader objectively, use the EOS® People Analyzer® and test their GWC™:
- Get It: Do they truly understand how modern supply chain, inventory data, and automated systems function? If they view software and structured processes as administrative burdens rather than efficiency levers, they do not get the seat.
- Want It: Do they genuinely want the responsibility of managing data-driven scorecards, continuous process improvement, and cross-departmental alignment? Many veteran leaders miss the early days of firefighting and quietly resent the discipline required to scale.
- Capacity to Do It: Do they possess the intellectual, emotional, and technical capacity to lead a larger, more complex department?

Schedule an honest conversation outside of your Level 10 Meeting. Present the five core roles of the modern seat on your Accountability Chart. Walk through the gap between manual heroics and systematic management. Give them thirty days to embrace standard operating procedures and scorecard discipline. If they cannot or will not make the shift, you must make the hard call. Keeping a legacy employee in a leadership seat they no longer GWC degrades team morale and caps company growth.