Our VP of Engineering is brilliant and has grown with us, but as his department has expanded to twenty people, he is failing at Leadership, Management, and Accountability. He refuses to do one-on-ones, hates managing people, and just wants to write code. How do we handle this before his entire team quits?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic Right Person, Wrong Seat dilemma. Your VP of Engineering clearly shares your core values, but he does not GWC the seat as it is currently defined. To sit in a leadership seat, an individual must want to lead, manage, and hold people accountable, which is the LMA role on your Accountability Chart. If they hate managing people, they cannot successfully occupy that seat, regardless of their technical genius.

You have to address this immediately because a manager who refuses to manage will destroy team morale and drive your best performers out the door. Start by having an honest, vulnerable conversation. Use the GWC tool to help them see that the seat has outgrown their desired day to day work. Ask them flat out if they actually want to spend fifty percent of their time managing people, coaching, and holding team members accountable.

If they admit they do not want to manage, do not fire them. Instead, look at your Accountability Chart and see if you can create an individual contributor seat, such as a Chief Architect or Principal Engineer, that allows them to focus purely on their technical strengths.

Once you move them out of the VP of Engineering seat, you can search for a true leader who loves LMA to fill the vacant management role. This preserves your culture, keeps your technical genius happy, and gives the engineering team the leadership they deserve.