One of our co-founders is highly creative but lacks operational discipline. To keep him happy, the leadership team wants to create a Special Projects Director seat on our Accountability Chart. Why is this a mistake, and how should we handle it?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Creating a Special Projects Director seat is a major structural mistake. It is almost always a dummy seat designed to accommodate a person rather than serve the organization. In EOS, we design the structure first to achieve our long-term vision, then we place the right people in those seats. Creating a seat for a specific individual violates this core rule and introduces confusion.

A special projects seat rarely has clear, measurable accountabilities. Because the roles are vague, this person will inevitably drift across department lines, interfere with other leaders' areas, and create operational whiplash. Your leadership team will end up spending valuable time managing the friction caused by this undefined role.

To handle this, you must look at the actual operational needs of your business. If you have a Visionary and an Integrator, look closely at where this co-founder's true strengths lie. Creative, big picture thinkers belong in the Visionary seat or perhaps in a specialized research and development role, provided that role has clear, measurable boundaries and a single point of accountability.

Sit down with the co-founder and review your V/TO. Map his talents against the seats that are actually required to execute your three-year picture. If he cannot GWC any of the essential leadership seats, he must step out of operations. He can still retain his equity and board seat, but his name must not occupy a functional seat on the daily Accountability Chart just to appease his ego.