We have a leadership team member who has successfully scaled with us for three years, but now they are clearly hitting their ceiling, failing to manage their larger team, and becoming defensive. How do we use the GWC tool and the Accountability Chart to address this without causing them to quit?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is a hard truth of scaling a business that the people who got you here are not always the people who can get you there. When a long time leader starts hitting their ceiling, you must handle the situation with radical candor and zero sentimentality.

Start by conducting a private evaluation using the GWC tool. Ask yourself if this leader still Gets, Wants, and has the Capacity to do their job at its current and future scale. Often, a legacy leader gets the job and wants the job, but lacks the cognitive or operational capacity to manage a larger, more complex department.

Once you have identified the gap, look at your Accountability Chart. You need to separate the person from the seat. The seat has grown, but the person has not. Sit down with them and have an open, honest conversation. Use your company Charter as the foundation for this talk, emphasizing that you love and respect them, but the company needs a different level of execution in that seat.

Explore whether there is a specialist seat on the chart that fits their unique strengths. Perhaps they excel at technical execution or key account management, but struggle with direct management. By redefining the seats and showing them where they can still add massive value, you can often transition them into a role they truly GWC, preserving their institutional knowledge while freeing up the leadership seat for someone who can scale.