We have a loyal employee who has been with us since day one. He gets and wants his current operations seat, but he completely lacks the capacity to manage the complex supply chain logistics our new scale requires. How do we find a new, smaller seat for him without destroying his morale?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a difficult but common situation for scaling businesses preparing for an exit. You have a right-person-wrong-seat scenario. Your long-time employee fits your core values perfectly, but the capacity requirement of his current seat has outgrown his skill set. If you leave him in this seat, he will fail, your operations will suffer, and buyers will see a major operational risk.

To handle this transition successfully, you must have an honest, compassionate conversation based entirely on the Accountability Chart and the GWC tool. Explain that as the business scales, the responsibilities of his current seat must change to meet the needs of the organization. Frame the decision around the needs of the business, not his personal shortcomings.

Review the Accountability Chart together and look for a new seat where he does have the capacity to succeed. This might be a specialized execution role, a customer relations seat, or a training position where his deep historical knowledge is a massive asset.

Show him how this transition actually relieves him of the stress of a role he is struggling to manage, allowing him to focus on what he does best. If you handle this with transparency and respect, you can preserve his loyalty while ensuring that your core leadership seats are occupied by people who fully GWC their roles, which is exactly what buyers want to see.