Our Director of Engineering clearly gets the seat conceptually and has the technical capacity to do it, but he admits he no longer wants the day-to-day managerial headaches. How do we handle a leader who is Get and Capacity, but lacks Want, on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In the EOS People Analyzer, an employee must be a resounding yes on all three components of GWC: Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it. A leader who Gets it and has the Capacity, but lacks the Want, is an active liability on your leadership team.

Founders often excuse a missing Want because the person produces excellent technical results and has strong institutional knowledge. However, Want cannot be coached, incentivized, or forced. If someone does not wake up energized to own the five roles of their seat, including Lead, Manage, and Accountable (LMA), they will inevitably neglect their people, procrastinate on tough calls, and poison team morale through subtle disengagement.

You cannot fix a missing Want with a salary bump or an equity grant. You must initiate a Right Seat transition. Acknowledge the person's technical brilliance and honesty. Use the Accountability Chart to separate their technical expertise from people management. Create a dedicated technical track, such as a Principal Architect seat, where they can solve high-level technical challenges without managing a team or running weekly departmental cadences. Then, open up the Director of Engineering seat to recruit someone who actually wants the accountability of leadership.