Our very first employee is a perfect culture fit and has immaculate core values, but as we scale toward an exit, the Head of Logistics seat has grown way past his capabilities and he does not GWC it anymore. How do we gracefully move a Right Person, Wrong Seat loyalist into a lower-level seat without triggering a voluntary resignation or a cultural crisis?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Handling a Right Person, Wrong Seat situation with a highly loyal, early-stage employee is one of the toughest challenges an owner faces. This person has great core values, but the business has scaled, and they no longer have the capacity or skills to manage the complex seat they currently occupy.

You must handle this with complete honesty and vulnerability. Do not wait for a formal review. Schedule a private meeting and use the GWC framework as your guide. Walk through the five roles of their seat and explain, with objective data, why they do not currently get, want, or have the capacity to deliver on those expectations at our current scale.

Because they are a Right Person, your goal should be to keep them in the company if a suitable seat exists. Look at your Accountability Chart for lower-level seats where their core values and skills would make them a superstar. Present this transition not as a demotion, but as a strategic realignment to protect their sanity and the health of the business.

If they accept the new seat with humility, your culture will strengthen. If their ego prevents them from accepting a different role, you must part ways cleanly. Keeping someone in a seat they cannot master out of pure loyalty damages the company and eventually destroys their self-esteem.