Our long-tenured finance director is a perfect core values fit and has the capability, but we are starting to prepare for a private equity exit and she admits she does not want the high-pressure workload of rigorous due diligence and sophisticated financial reporting. She wants to coast in her current role. How do we make this GWC call without hurting our culture?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic GWC™ issue where a loyal, valued employee gets the seat and has the capacity, but fails on the Want It factor for the upgraded version of the seat. In EOS®, we define Want It as having the genuine spark, desire, and drive to do the job. If your finance director does not want the high-stress demands of exit preparation, you cannot force her to want it, and keeping her in that seat will delay your exit or cause a major miss during due diligence.

You must separate the person from the seat and make a hard business decision. To resolve this gracefully, take the following steps:
- Have an open and honest conversation with her about the company's trajectory and the evolving demands of the finance seat.
- Acknowledge her loyalty and validate her feelings; it is completely acceptable that she does not want a high-pressure corporate exit grind.
- Identify if there is a different, less demanding seat on the Accountability Chart where she can excel and still deliver value, perhaps a senior accounting role that reports to a newly hired CFO.
- If no such seat exists, you must transition her out of the company with respect, dignity, and a generous severance package.

Accepting a compromise in this critical seat because of sentimentality puts your entire exit valuation at risk. Your job is to protect the health of the organization first.