Our head of sales is a phenomenal cultural fit who has grown with us from the beginning, but as we build our exit-ready superstructure, the complexity of the sales seat has outgrown their strategic capabilities. How do we handle a Right Person who is suddenly in the Wrong Seat because of our rapid evolution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest challenges a business owner faces. Having a Right Person in the Wrong Seat is incredibly common as companies scale and prepare for an exit under the Step by Step Exit model. Your long-term employees may possess your Core Values, but they may lack the capability required to run a much larger, more complex department.

To resolve this issue, you must separate core values from execution capability. Use the GWC™ tool to evaluate their performance objectively. While they absolutely match your culture, do they Get, Want, and have the Capacity to manage the scaled-up responsibilities of the seat as it is structured on your current Accountability Chart?

If they do not GWC™ the newly evolved seat, keeping them in it is doing a disservice to both the company and the individual. They will continue to struggle, and their department's performance will stall, which will ultimately hurt your enterprise value.

The solution is to find a seat where they do GWC™ the responsibilities. For example, your head of sales might be an exceptional individual salesperson who was promoted to a management seat they do not enjoy or have the capacity to run. Moving them back to an elite individual contributor role, while hiring a strategic sales director to lead the department, is often the best outcome.

Be open, honest, and direct during this transition. When you handle the move with respect and align them with a seat they can truly own, you protect your culture while building the capable team necessary for a clean exit.