Our operations director has been with us for ten years and is deeply loyal, but as we scale toward a sale, the seat requires sophisticated supply chain management that he simply cannot handle. How do we manage this Right Person, Wrong Seat situation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest calls a business owner has to make. You have a Right Person, because he shares your core values, but he is in the Wrong Seat because he lacks the capacity to deliver at your current and future scale.

You cannot let loyalty compromise the business structure. Keeping him in a seat he cannot GWC™ hurts the company, frustrates his team, and will ultimately kill your valuation during buyer due diligence.

First, you must design the ideal future-state operations seat on your Accountability Chart without his name in it. Define the exact roles and metrics required for the seat to support your exit plan. Once you confirm he lacks the capacity for this new seat, you must move him out of it.

Because he is a Right Person, your goal should be to find or create a different seat where he can excel and fully GWC™ the roles. This might be a specialized technical seat or a customer relationship seat that values his deep institutional knowledge. If no such seat exists, or if he refuses to step down, you must transition him out of the company with dignity and a generous package.