My head of development has been with me since day one. He is incredibly loyal and we've been through hell together, but he does not have the skills to lead our engineering team anymore. What do I do?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is the classic loyalty trap, and it is one of the hardest hurdles for growing companies. You are confusing cultural loyalty with functional capability. In the EOS® framework, we demand Right People in the Right Seats. Your head of development is likely a "Right Person" - they live your Core Values and have earned their stripes. But they are in the "Wrong Seat" because they no longer GWC™ (Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it) the role of a scaling department head.

If you leave them in that seat out of sentimentality, you are punishing the rest of the organization. Top-tier engineers will leave because they lack strong leadership, and your product development will stall.

To handle this cleanly, you must have a transparent, business-first conversation. Acknowledge their massive contributions and share your vision for where the engineering seat must go to support the company’s exit or scaling goals. Map their natural strengths using a Kolbe A™ Profile. They might be a brilliant, hands-on developer (high "Implementor" or "Fact Finder") who hates managing people but loves solving complex technical architecture problems.

Redesign the Accountability Chart to create a seat that leverages their conative genius without the management overhead. If they accept the new seat, you retain their loyalty and deep historical knowledge while bringing in a true leader who can scale. If their ego cannot handle the shift, you must help them make a clean transition out of the company.