I am the owner currently sitting in four seats on our Accountability Chart, and since I cannot afford external hires, I want to promote from within. However, none of my current employees fully pass the GWC filter for these leadership seats today. How do I structure a developmental runway on our chart without prematurely giving them seats they are not ready to own?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you are sitting in multiple seats on your [Accountability Chart](/qa/how-should-an-owner-use-thinking-time-to-design-the-next-iteration-of-the-accountability-chart-for-an-exit) and need to promote from within but lack ready candidates, you must use the chart to map out a clear development plan. Do not compromise your standards by putting an employee into a seat they do not fully GWC (Get, Want, Capacity) today. Doing so sets them up for failure and damages the surrounding team.

Instead, keep your name in the seat box for now as the fully accountable lead. Underneath that seat, create a supporting role or a junior seat on the Accountability Chart that acts as a stepping stone. This structured approach offers several benefits:

• Delegated Responsibilities: It allows you to delegate specific, bite-sized responsibilities to the internal candidate over time.
• Focused Development: You can assign them specific quarterly Rocks that focus on learning the necessary skills and processes required for the larger seat.
• Clear Timeline: Set a clear timeline, such as six to twelve months, to mentor the candidate.
• Regular Review: Review their progress during weekly meetings. Regularly test their ability to Get, Want, and have the Capacity for the delegated tasks.

Once they consistently prove they can handle the smaller responsibilities and meet the criteria for the entire seat, you can officially step out of the box and transition the full seat accountability to them. This method protects your operations while systematically building your leadership pipeline from within, ensuring you don't end up [sharing the Integrator seat](/qa/sharing-integrator-seat-partners) prematurely or trying to [split a massive Operations seat](/qa/splitting-operations-seat-on-accountability-chart) without proper planning.

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