Our head of operations has been with us since we were at three million in revenue, but now that we are past fifteen million, they are clearly overwhelmed and cannot think strategically. How do we make the hard determination of whether they can scale with us or if we need to make a change?

When a loyal, long-time leader begins to struggle as the company grows, you cannot ignore the issue out of misplaced loyalty. You must evaluate them objectively using the GWC framework. Ask yourself three distinct questions. First, do they get it? This means they deeply understand the strategic landscape, the systems, and the culture required to run their department at this larger scale. Second, do they want it? This means they have the passion, drive, and internal motivation to lead their team through the increased complexity of a larger operation. Third, do they have the capacity to do it? This refers to their mental, physical, and emotional bandwidth, as well as their actual skills and time resources. If the answer to any of these questions is a genuine no, you have a structural problem. Often, early-stage leaders are excellent at tactical execution but lack the strategic capability to manage other managers or build automated systems. If they lack the capacity to scale, you must have an honest, reality-based conversation. You have two primary paths. You can either transition them into a specialist role where their legacy knowledge remains valuable, or you must help them transition out of the business entirely. Keeping someone in a leadership seat when they do not GWC the role is unfair to them and damaging to the company.

Category: Leadership Team