As we prepare for due diligence, we need a dedicated Contracts and Liability Reviewer seat to audit our vendor agreements and client service level agreements. None of our leaders want this tedious administrative seat. How do we assign accountability for an unpopular seat without forcing it on someone who will neglect it?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Every critical function in an exit-ready business must have a single name accountable for it. If a seat like Contracts and Liability Reviewer is empty because it is tedious, you cannot simply leave it blank or hope the leadership team manages it collectively. That is a recipe for catastrophic due diligence failures.

First, clarify the roles of this seat on your Accountability Chart. Define exactly what the seat is responsible for, such as reviewing vendor contract terms, tracking service level agreements, and cataloging liabilities. Once the roles are clear, look at your existing team through the lens of GWC™.

If no one on your leadership team gets, wants, and has the capacity for this seat, you have three options. First, assign it temporarily to the leader who has the closest functional alignment, typically your Integrator or Head of Finance, as a short-term Rock. This is a temporary fix, not a permanent solution.

Second, outsource the function to an external specialist, like a fractional legal operations firm, and place the name of the internal leader who manages that vendor in the seat on your chart. Third, if the volume of work justifies it, hire a dedicated resource. Do not split the seat among multiple people. One name must own the accountability, even if they delegate the actual administrative work to assistants or software.