Our two co-founders want to co-manage our marketing and sales departments, sharing a single seat on the Accountability Chart because they do not want one to report to the other. How do I explain why a shared seat is a recipe for operational failure?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Sharing a seat on the Accountability Chart is a guaranteed way to create confusion, delay decisions, and foster political infighting. When two co-founders try to co-manage a department, they believe they are protecting their partnership, but in reality, they are avoiding the hard work of defining clear accountability. If two people are accountable, nobody is accountable.

In the EOS® model, every seat on the Accountability Chart can have only one name in it. This rule is absolute. Having a single owner for each seat ensures that when a metric on your scorecard drops, or when a Rock is missed, the team knows exactly who to turn to for answers.

Sit down with the co-founders and map out the actual roles within the sales and marketing seat. You will find that one of them naturally aligns more with the strategic vision of marketing, while the other is better suited for the high-energy execution of sales. Split the seat into two distinct positions on the chart. If they still insist on sharing the role, you must challenge them to put the needs of the business ahead of their personal egos.