I am currently sitting in four seats on our Accountability Chart, and I am completely burnt out, but we do not have the cash flow to hire four external replacements. How do I use my conative profile to determine which of these four seats I must delegate first to survive?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you find yourself in multiple seats on your [Accountability Chart](/qa/how-many-hats-can-one-person-wear-eos) and are experiencing burnout, using conative science for a "surgical strike" delegation is highly effective. You cannot delegate all four seats at once without negatively impacting your cash flow, so prioritize strategically.

Using Your Kolbe A Index Results

Your Kolbe A Index results measure your instinctive way of doing things, revealing your natural strengths and where you expend the most mental energy. To identify which seat to delegate first:

• Review Your Action Modes: Look specifically at your lowest-scoring action modes. These are the areas where you have a natural resistance, or where performing tasks in that mode drains your energy the most.
• Identify Conative Conflicts: If, for example, you have a high Quick Start score (you love initiating new things) but a low Follow Thru score (you struggle with systematic execution), you should not be in a seat that primarily requires detailed process management or consistent execution, such as Operations or Finance.
• Recognize Energy Drain: A low Follow Thru in such a role means you're wasting massive amounts of mental energy trying to keep those systems running, accelerating your burnout. The seat that most directly contradicts your natural conative wiring is the one you must vacate first. This principle also applies to cases where a [low Follow Thru creates a risk for the business](/qa/restructuring-low-follow-thru-technical-founder).

Delegating the Target Seat

Once you have identified the specific seat that causes the most conative stress:

1. Look Internally: Assess your existing team. Does someone already possess the natural conative strengths to step into this role? Promoting from within can minimize the cash flow impact and leverage existing talent. For example, if you have an employee whose [Kolbe score shows strong Follow Thru](/qa/kolbe-follow-through-gwc-capacity) and Fact Finder, they might be a great fit for an operational seat you're struggling with.
2. Consider Fractional Support: If an internal candidate isn't available, prepare to hire a fractional resource. This approach keeps your cash flow hit minimal while giving you back the most cognitive capacity.
3. Map Out the Role: Use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time framework. Dedicate forty-five minutes once a week to map out the exact roles and responsibilities of this target seat. This ensures you're not just dumping work on someone else, but systematically transferring it. Thinking Time is also excellent for [diagnosing structural issues in your Accountability Chart](/qa/thinking-time-accountability-chart-bottlenecks).

By surgically addressing the seat that conflicts most with your natural conative profile, you can significantly reduce your burnout and free up valuable mental capacity with minimal financial outlay. For a broader strategy on how to exit multiple seats, consider approaches outlined for [founders sitting in four seats](/qa/founder-sitting-in-four-seats-delegation-sequence).

Related questions

• [How do we use the Kolbe A Index to diagnose why our Sales and Operations heads are constantly in conflict over project handoffs?](/qa/kolbe-sales-operations-conflict-handoffs)
• [One of our top performers was promoted to a managerial seat but is now burning out. How do we check if they have conative stress?](/qa/promoted-employee-burnout-conative-stress)
• [Our Head of Customer Success is a great culture fit and passes the gets it and wants it tests, but her Kolbe score shows she has a very low Follow Thru and high Quick Start. She keeps starting new client retention initiatives but never completes them. Is this a GWC capacity issue, or can we solve this by restructuring her seat?](/qa/head-customer-success-low-follow-thru-kolbe)
• [I am an owner sitting in four seats on our Accountability Chart, and I am ready to hire my first manager to take one over, but I do not know how to budget for this hire while still maintaining our current profit margins. How do I structurally prepare for this transition?](/qa/owner-sitting-in-four-seats-how-to-budget-and-delegate)
• [How should an owner use Thinking Time to design the next iteration of the Accountability Chart for an exit?](/qa/thinking-time-accountability-chart-exit-prep)