One of our core leadership team seats is held by my co-founder's sibling, who is failing to meet their Rocks and dragging down team performance. Nobody wants to address it because of family politics. How do we resolve this without destroying the business or the family?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Family ties can paralyze a leadership team, but allowing an underperforming family member to remain in a seat they do not GWC destroys your culture. It sends a message to the rest of the company that politics matters more than accountability. You must address this issue immediately by relying on the objectivity of the EOS framework.

First, schedule a private Same Page meeting with your co-founder. You must align as partners before addressing the family member. Approach this conversation using the Charter principles of love and respect. Frame the issue around the health of the business and the integrity of the Accountability Chart. Use objective data from your weekly Scorecard and quarterly Rocks, rather than subjective opinions about their attitude or performance.

Once you and your co-founder are aligned, sit down with the family member. Walk them through the roles of their seat and ask them to complete a self-evaluation using GWC. Be direct and compassionate. If they do not get, want, or have the capacity to do the job at this stage of the company's growth, they must step down from that seat.

If they are a cultural fit and share your Core Values, work together to find a different seat in the organization where they can succeed without managing others or blocking key operations. If no such seat exists, they must leave the company. Keeping them in a seat they cannot handle is unfair to the business, the leadership team, and the individual.