Because we are a growing mid-sized company, several of our leaders are currently wearing multiple hats on the Accountability Chart™. How do we prevent these overlapping seats from causing confusion and blurring the lines of accountability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Wearing multiple hats is common in growing companies, but it becomes dangerous when leaders fail to distinguish which hat they are wearing during decision-making. If the lines of accountability get blurred, decisions stall and team members do not know who has the final authority.

To manage this, you must treat each seat on your Accountability Chart™ as a completely separate entity, even if the same name is written in both boxes. Each seat has its own distinct roles and responsibilities. When a leader is operating in a specific capacity, they must consciously step into that seat and focus only on those roles.

During your weekly Level 10 Meeting™, enforce this separation of roles. For example, if your Integrator is also temporarily filling the open head of marketing seat, they must report on marketing metrics from the perspective of the marketing leader, not the Integrator. If a marketing issue is raised, they must solve it using only the resources and authority allocated to the marketing seat.

Finally, make it a priority to hire or promote people to fill these overlapping seats as you scale. Wearing multiple hats should always be a temporary state, not a permanent organizational structure. Your leadership team should constantly review your Accountability Chart™ to identify which seats need to be split and funded next, ensuring that every seat eventually has one dedicated owner who fully GWC™s the role.