Our top salesperson wants to transition into a new, self-created Business Development seat that focuses entirely on strategic partnerships and high-level enterprise accounts. He has drafted his own roles, but our leadership team does not have this seat on our current Accountability Chart and we do not have defined metrics for it. How do we evaluate this request?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You must never create a seat on your Accountability Chart just because a high-performing employee wants it. Every seat must exist to serve the strategic goals of the business, not the career aspirations of an individual.

First, take this request to your leadership team during a session. Evaluate whether a dedicated Business Development seat is actually required to hit the goals outlined in your V/TO. If the answer is yes, then the leadership team must design the seat from scratch. You must define the five major roles and the measurable scorecard metrics that the seat will be held accountable for.

Once the seat is objectively designed, you then evaluate your salesperson against it using the GWC tool. Do they truly get it, want it, and have the physical and mental capacity to run this specific seat? If they pass GWC and the budget supports the seat, you can make the move. However, if the business does not actually need this seat, or if the metrics cannot be clearly defined, you must deny the request. Letting employees write their own roles leads to a disjointed Accountability Chart and a loss of organizational control.