Our long-tenured Head of Operations gets and wants his seat, but as we scale, the volume of work has exploded. He is working eighty hours a week and dropping balls, yet he insists he has the capacity if we just give him more assistants. He is a core values match, but we are hurting. How do we make the GWC call when a loyal leader has the Get and Want, but clearly lacks the physical and mental Capacity for the seat size?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Capacity is not just about time. It is about mental, physical, emotional, and intellectual bandwidth. When a leader is working eighty hours a week and still dropping balls, they do not have the capacity for that seat at this stage of your business growth. Giving him assistants will not solve the core issue. It will only add management overhead to a leader who is already drowning. You must look at the Accountability Chart and realize that the seat has outgrown the person. This is not a failure on his part. The business has simply hit a new ceiling, and the roles within that seat have become more complex. You must make the tough call. Sit down with him and have an honest, unsentimental conversation. Show him the data. Highlight the balls that are being dropped and explain that eighty-hour workweeks are unsustainable for him and dangerous for the company. Explain that you need to restructure the seat. You have two options. You can split the current operations seat into two distinct, smaller seats on the Accountability Chart, allowing him to focus on the area where he has the highest capacity. Alternatively, you can hire a new Head of Operations above him and move him into a different seat that aligns perfectly with his strengths. Because he is a core values match and a loyal leader, you want to keep him in the organization. But he must be in a seat where he can successfully achieve all five roles and responsibilities. Protecting him by ignoring his lack of capacity hurts him, your team, and your exit valuation.