My VP of Operations has been with us for five years and is a great manager, but as we scale, they are constantly stuck in the weeds and cannot think strategically about our future capacity. How do I determine if they have the cognitive and conative capacity to scale their seat, or if they have hit their ceiling?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest realizations for an owner. Your VP of Operations may have been perfect when you were smaller, but as the business grows, the seat on the Accountability Chart changes. You must evaluate them objectively using the GWC™ tool: do they Get it, do they Want it, and do they have the Capacity to do it?

Capacity is not just about time or effort. It is about cognitive and conative capability. To test this, look at how they solve problems. Are they constantly putting out daily fires, or are they building systems to prevent those fires from happening? If they are working seventy hours a week and still drowning, they are lacking the capacity to elevate.

Assess their conative profile using the Kolbe A™ Index. A leader who has a high instinct for physical construction or manual implementation might struggle when the seat requires abstract strategic planning and system design. They are working hard, but they are working against their natural grain.

To make a final determination, give them a strategic Rock that requires them to design a future capacity plan for their department. If they fail to deliver, or if their plan is just a list of tactical tasks, they have hit their ceiling.

When this happens, you must make a hard choice. Keeping them in a seat they cannot scale holds the entire company back and burns them out. You need to transition them to a seat that matches their actual strengths, or help them exit the company cleanly, so you can bring in a leader who can run your operations at the next level.