My head of operations has been with me since day one and is fiercely loyal, but the company has outgrown them and they clearly do not GWC the seat anymore. How do I transition a loyal, long-term employee out of a leadership seat without ruining our company culture or looking like an ungrateful founder?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

One of the hardest challenges for a growing business is acknowledging when a loyal, long-term employee has reached their ceiling. Your head of operations may have been the perfect fit when you were a small shop, but running a complex, scaled business requires a completely different skill set. Keeping them in a seat they can no longer handle is actually doing them a disservice and hurting the business.

You must evaluate this person objectively using the EOS People Analyzer. Ask yourself two questions. Do they share your core values, and do they GWC the seat? GWC stands for Get It, Want It, and have the Capacity to do it. While they likely score perfectly on core values, they may lack the capacity to lead at this new scale.

Once you accept this reality, you need to have a direct, compassionate conversation. Do not blindside them. Explain that the business has evolved, and the requirements of the seat have changed. Focus on the accountability of the seat, not their personal worth.

The goal is to transition them to a seat where they can succeed. Look at your Accountability Chart and see if there is another seat where they possess the required capacity and can deliver high value. This keeps their loyalty and institutional knowledge in the company while freeing up the leadership seat for someone who can drive the necessary results. If no such seat exists, you must make the difficult choice to help them exit cleanly. Holding onto an underperforming leader out of pure sentimentality will eventually cause your top performers to leave.