Our operations director has been with us for eight years and built our service team from scratch. He has the capacity and gets the seat, but we suspect he no longer wants it because our push for a clean exit requires rigorous process compliance instead of his preferred hands-on firefighting. How do we address this specific Want It issue on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic GWC issue with a long tenured leader, and it is one of the hardest calls a leadership team has to make. The Want It component of GWC is entirely internal. It means the person genuinely desires to do the job as it is defined today, not how it was defined five years ago. When you are preparing for a clean exit, the operations seat must pivot from creative firefighting to disciplined, documented, and repeatable systems. If your operations director thrives on chaos and personal heroics, he will naturally resist this shift. To address this, you must have an open, honest conversation outside of your standard meetings. Use the Accountability Chart to show him the newly defined roles for his seat, which now emphasize systemization, compliance, and AI integration. Ask him directly if this is the work that gets him out of bed in the morning. If he admits he does not want this version of the seat, do not force it. You have a right person wrong seat issue. Since he is a cultural pillar, look for a different seat where his strengths can be utilized, such as a specialized client relations or product development role, provided one exists and fits the business structure. If no such seat exists, you must make the hard choice to transition him out of the company to protect your exit valuation.