As we prepare our business for rapid scaling, our Accountability Chart is starting to look bloated with custom seats created for specific employees. How do we keep our structure objective and focused on what the business actually needs?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You are falling into the classic trap of designing the Accountability Chart around your existing people rather than what the business needs to reach the next level. This is a dangerous habit that creates structural bottlenecks and hurts your company value.

To fix this, you must look at your business through a completely objective lens. Imagine you have zero employees and are building the company from scratch to reach your 3-Year Picture. What are the essential seats required to run the operation?

Define the exact seats and their five major roles first. Only after you have built the ideal structure do you begin looking at your actual people to see if they fit. Use the GWC™ tool to evaluate each person. Do they get it, do they want it, and do they have the capacity to do it?

If you have a seat with no one to fill it, or a valued employee who does not fit any of the defined seats, you must make the hard strategic decision. Do not compromise the structure of your business to accommodate an individual. A clean, scalable business requires an objective structure that can run independently of any single personality.