We have a major compliance audit coming up, and I want to temporarily dump several compliance roles onto our Lead Architect's seat. He already has five major roles. How do we determine if we are overloading a seat beyond a person's physical capacity?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Overloading a high-performing employee is a silent killer of company culture. When you pile extra roles onto a seat because that person is capable, you risk burning them out and forcing them to drop the ball on their core accountabilities.

To determine if a seat is overloaded, look at the GWC™ tool, specifically the Capacity component. Capacity does not just mean intellectual ability; it also means having the actual hours in the week to perform the roles at a high level. If your Lead Architect already has five major roles, adding complex compliance roles will push him over the edge.

Ask yourself these questions during your next Level 10 Meeting™:
- Are the existing Scorecard measurables for his seat starting to slip?
- Is he failing to complete his quarterly Rocks because of daily operational fires?
- Does he have the specialized knowledge to execute these compliance roles without extensive training?

If the answer is yes to the slip or no to the training, the seat is overloaded. Instead of dumping these roles onto his seat, you must find a different structural solution. You can create a temporary project-based seat, leverage external automated compliance software, or outsource the audit preparation to a fractional specialist. Do not sacrifice your long-term technical architecture to solve a short-term compliance emergency. Protect the capacity of your key players.