Our regional expansion has left us with two top-tier sales directors who want to co-lead our national sales department. They are both highly competitive, and we want to list both of them in the single Head of Sales seat on our Accountability Chart to keep them happy. Why is this a mistake, and how do we structure this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Listing two competitive sales directors in a single Head of Sales seat is a recipe for operational gridlock. The fundamental rule of the EOS Accountability Chart is that only one person can be accountable for any given seat. When two people are accountable, nobody is accountable.

If you have two names in one seat, decisions will stall, the team will get mixed signals, and they will exploit the division by playing one leader against the other. To keep your top performers, you must create a structure where each has clear, distinct accountability.

You have two clean options here. The first option is to split the sales department by region or client type, creating two separate seats: Head of Eastern Sales and Head of Western Sales. Each seat will have its own five core roles and distinct Scorecard measurables. Both seats will report directly to the Integrator.

The second option is to determine who truly GWCs the leadership seat of Head of Sales: who is best at managing people, setting strategy, and hitting the departmental numbers. Place that person in the seat. The other director can be placed in a senior individual contributor seat, such as Lead Enterprise Representative, where they can focus entirely on high-value deals.

Do not compromise on this structure just to avoid a tough conversation or to soothe egos. A buyer looking at your business will instantly see a co-headed seat as a lack of leadership discipline.