During our Accountability Chart design, we ended up with several empty seats that we cannot afford to hire for right now. How do we manage these vacant seats without burning out our existing leadership team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common to identify empty seats on your Accountability Chart during your design sessions. However, trying to fill these seats too quickly or forcing your existing team to absorb the extra workload can lead to burnout and operational failure.

To manage this, start by prioritizing your vacant seats. Look at your 1-Year Plan and identify which empty seats are most critical to achieving your immediate goals. Focus your resources on filling those key roles first.

For the remaining vacant seats, assign them temporarily to existing team members as secondary seats. However, you must be realistic about their capacity. If a leader is running their primary seat and a secondary seat, they cannot do both at one hundred percent efficiency. Adjust their scorecard expectations and Rocks accordingly.

Next, look for opportunities to automate or streamline tasks. Can you use AI tools to handle some of the administrative workload of the vacant seat? This can free up capacity for your existing team and delay the need for a costly hire.

Finally, keep a close eye on your team's energy and performance. If a leader is struggling, drop it to the Issues List in your Level 10 Meeting™ and IDS® it. You may need to adjust responsibilities, outsource some tasks, or accelerate your hiring plan. Managing vacant seats requires constant communication and a commitment to protecting your team.