Our Head of Sales has been with us since day one and is practically family, but he is failing the GWC check for the modern, CRM-driven sales leader seat we need now. He refuses to track activity metrics and says his relationships are all that matter. How do we address this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic dilemma where loyalty clashes with the needs of a scaling business. If your Head of Sales does not GWC the seat as it is defined today, you cannot look the other way. You must address this during your next weekly meeting or a private conversation, using the GWC tool.

Does he truly get the seat? Getting it means having a deep, instinctual understanding of what a modern, metrics-driven sales department requires. Wanting it means having the genuine drive to execute that role day in and day out. Capacity means having the emotional, physical, and intellectual capability to do it.

In this case, he wants the status but does not get or have the capacity for the modern system. You have to separate the person from the seat. Draw the seat on your Accountability Chart based on what the company needs to reach its goals, not what he wants to do. If he cannot or will not change to fit the seat, you must remove him from it.

Because he is a core values fit, you can look for another seat on the Accountability Chart where he does GWC. Perhaps that is an individual contributor role like key account management or senior sales specialist. He can still use his relationships to bring in revenue without holding back the operational maturity of your sales department. If no such seat exists, or if his ego will not allow the transition, you must help him make a clean exit from the company. Keeping him in a leadership seat he does not GWC is unfair to him and toxic to your team.