Our Director of Logistics has been exceptional for seven years and clearly Gets It and has the Capacity, but after a recent life change, he openly admits he no longer Wants the stress of the seat. He refuses to step down voluntarily, so how do we handle this GWC breakdown?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

GWC™ is a binary filter. To sit in a seat on the Accountability Chart, an individual must answer yes to all three components: they Get It, they Want It, and they have the Capacity to do it. If any of those three is a no, you have a Right Person, Wrong Seat issue.

When a loyal, high-performing leader admits they no longer Want the seat, they are telling you their commitment has lapsed. They might stay because of comfort, compensation, or fear of the unknown, but an executive who does not want the accountability will inevitably drag down team momentum, avoid tough decisions, and burn out.

You cannot force someone to want a seat. Here is how to handle the situation:
- Acknowledge their honesty. Thank them for being transparent about their state of mind. It is better to address a known Want It deficit now than to clean up an operational collapse six months down the road.
- Look at the Accountability Chart to see if an alternative seat exists. Is there an individual contributor seat, a specialized engineering role, or a process optimization seat where their deep domain knowledge can be utilized without the operational stress of managing people and logistics?
- If an appropriate alternative seat exists that they genuinely Want and have the Capacity for, transition them cleanly, adjusting compensation to match the actual market value of that new seat.
- If no such seat exists, you must initiate a planned transition. Build an exit timeline, recruit a replacement, have the current leader assist with onboarding, and part ways with a fair severance.

Allowing someone who does not Want the seat to remain in leadership damages your culture and insults the team members giving one hundred percent. Make the call.