We want to promote our top project manager to the Integrator seat, but they are a high Follow Thru who struggles with the confrontational side of driving accountability. How do we assess if they can actually step up to this seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Promoting from within is excellent for cultural continuity, but the Integrator seat is unique. It requires a rare combination of organizational discipline and the emotional fortitude to have tough conversations. A high Follow Thru score means they excel at building systems, but it does not guarantee they can lead.

To assess if they are a fit, you must run them through the GWC test. Do they get the seat? Do they want the seat? Do they have the capacity to do the seat?

The capacity part of GWC is where this call will be made. Capacity includes emotional and conative capacity. An Integrator must be willing to lean into conflict, address performance issues, and hold their peers accountable. If your candidate is conflict-avoidant, they will struggle to manage the other leadership team members.

Test their capacity before making the promotion permanent. Give them a temporary project where they must manage a cross-functional team and hold people accountable to deadlines. Watch how they handle missed deliverables. Do they address the issue directly, or do they step in and do the work themselves to avoid conflict?

You should also look at their behavioral profile. Tools like the Predictive Index can show if they have the assertiveness required to drive accountability. If they lack this natural drive, the seat will exhaust them, and your leadership team will begin to drift. It is better to keep them in a high-value operational seat where they excel rather than promoting them into a role that sets them up to fail.