Our head of customer success is an absolute rockstar at handling client issues, but as we expand, they are completely failing to build, manage, and motivate their growing team. How do we handle a leader who is technically brilliant but cannot scale their leadership capabilities?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for a leader to excel at execution but struggle with leadership, management, and accountability as the company grows. If your head of customer success is great with clients but failing to lead their team, you must address this before it stalls your business valuation.

First, you must evaluate them using the LMA tool: Leadership, Management, and Accountability. Are they actually leading, managing, and holding their people accountable, or are they just stepping in to solve customer problems themselves? Often, brilliant individual contributors are promoted into leadership seats they do not GWC™. They want to do the work, but they do not want to manage the people.

Have an open, Humbly-Confident conversation. Mirror back their behavior. Show them where they are failing to train their team, which is leading to direct reports burning out or missing their Scorecard metrics. You must determine if this is a training issue or a seat issue.

If they have a Grow or Die mindset, invest in their management training. Clearly outline what success looks like in their leadership role, not just their technical role. Set specific Rocks focused on team development, such as documenting processes or establishing a structured weekly meeting pulse for their department.

However, if they simply do not want to manage people, you must make a hard structural decision. You may need to create a specialist seat on your Accountability Chart that leverages their technical brilliance without the people-management responsibilities, and hire a true manager to run the department.