Our Director of Sales is an absolute rockstar who exceeds all his revenue targets, but he constantly violates our core values and creates a toxic environment for our support team. How do we handle this Right Seat, Wrong Person situation when we are only twelve months from an exit?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic Right Seat, Wrong Person scenario, and it is a toxic trap for owners preparing for an exit. It is easy to look the other way when a leader is hitting their numbers, especially when those numbers directly impact your short-term revenue and valuation. However, keeping a culturally toxic person on your leadership team is an incredibly dangerous gamble. They will destroy team morale, drive away your best talent, and create a highly volatile internal culture that sophisticated buyers will detect during their due diligence interviews.

In the EOS framework, we define a right person as someone who shares your core values. If your Sales Director consistently fails your core values check, he is the wrong person, period. It does not matter how good his sales numbers are.

To handle this, you must have a direct, unsentimental conversation with him. Use your core values as the objective standard and give him a clear, thirty-day window to change his behavior, documented with specific examples. If he does not make a permanent, measurable shift, you must transition him out of the business.

Leaving a toxic leader in place tells the rest of your team that your core values are just meaningless slogans on a wall. Replace him with a leader who fits your culture and can build a scalable, repeatable sales system. Buyers do not just buy historical revenue; they buy cultural stability and a healthy, high-performing team that will stick around after the sale.