My head of operations is smart and works eighty hours a week, but they refuse to build a middle management layer beneath them, which means they have become a massive bottleneck for the entire leadership team's strategic execution. How do we force a leader who cannot scale their department to stop doing the work themselves and start leading?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leader who works eighty hours a week but refuses to delegate is not a hero; they are a major liability to your company. When a leader acts as a bottleneck, it is usually because they lack the ability or willingness to lead, manage, and hold people accountable, which we call the LMA role on the Accountability Chart.

You need to have an honest, direct conversation with this leader. Use the GWC™ tool to diagnose the root cause. They might want the seat, but they clearly lack the capacity to scale their leadership because they are trapped in the day-to-day doing.

Force them to document their core processes and delegate their tactical tasks. You must make it clear that their success is no longer measured by their personal output, but by the performance and independence of their department. Set a specific Rock next quarter for them to hire or promote a supervisor to take over their daily operational tasks.

If they resist this change, or if they struggle to train their direct reports, they have hit their personal ceiling in this seat. You must decide whether to move them to a senior specialist role where they can contribute without managing people, or transition them out of the organization. Keeping them in a seat they cannot scale will stunt your entire company's growth and burn out your best asset.