My co-founder sits on our leadership team as our head of product, but they are consistently missing their Rocks and failing to manage their team. The other directors are getting frustrated, but I am hesitant to address it because of our partnership. How do we handle an underperforming co-founder on the leadership team?

This is one of the most painful challenges an owner can face, but you must separate ownership from operations. Your co-founder may own fifty percent of the company, but on the Accountability Chart, they occupy a specific operational seat. If they are failing in that seat, they are hurting the value of their own investment.

You must have a private conversation outside of the office. Remind your co-founder of their two distinct roles: shareholder and employee. As a shareholder, their goal is to maximize the value of the business. As an employee, their goal is to hit their Rocks and run their department effectively.

Evaluate their performance using the GWC tool. Do they still Get, Want, and have the Capacity to do the job at this stage of the company? Often, a co-founder who helped build the early product does not want to manage a large team of developers or handle daily administrative tasks. They may actually want to step out of the seat but feel obligated to stay.

Redesign the Accountability Chart to find a seat that fits their unique strengths, or transition them out of operations entirely so they can focus on being an active board member. This protects your relationship, restores accountability to the leadership team, and sends a clear message to your other directors that performance standards apply to everyone.

Category: Leadership Team