We have two exceptional sales managers and want to split our Head of Sales seat into a co-leadership model because we do not want to choose between them. How does the Accountability Chart handle two people sharing one leadership seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The short answer is that the Accountability Chart does not allow two people to share a single seat. Period. Having two heads of sales means nobody is ultimately accountable. When sales targets are missed, the co-leaders will point fingers at each other, and your Integrator will have to resolve every dispute, defeating the purpose of having a leadership team.

To solve this, you must split the seat into two distinct, separate seats on the Accountability Chart. You cannot have a shared box. You must divide the responsibilities clearly. For example, you can create a Head of Inbound Sales seat and a Head of Outbound Sales seat. Alternatively, you can split them by geographic territory, target market, or product line. Each seat must have its own distinct five roles and its own measurable numbers on the Scorecard.

If you cannot split the seat logically, then you must make a hard decision and choose the one person who truly gets, wants, and has the capacity for the leadership role. The other manager can then sit in a high-performing individual contributor seat, such as Lead Enterprise Account Executive. Do not use co-leadership as a political compromise to avoid a difficult conversation. It always leads to operational confusion, dropped balls, and frustrated employees. One seat, one person.