Our leadership team is constantly debating whether a seat on the Accountability Chart should be split based on our projected future scale or our current cash flow constraints. How do we keep people focused on the right seats for the business?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a leadership team gets bogged down in whether to split an operational seat based on future scale or current cash flow, they are letting current limitations dictate their future potential. The Accountability Chart must always be designed forward, looking six to twelve months into the future, completely independent of the people currently in the seats or temporary budget constraints.

To break this logjam, lead the team through a clean-slate exercise. Remove all names from the Accountability Chart and look only at the functions the business needs to reach the next level of growth. If your strategic goals and your V/TO indicate that you must build a highly automated, AI-driven operation to prepare for a clean exit, you will likely need specialized seats for data automation and system integration that do not exist today.

Once you have designed the ideal structure for the future, compare it to your current reality. If cash flow is tight, you cannot always hire two expensive external executives immediately. This is where you prioritize.

Identify which seat is the absolute bottleneck to your growth and fill that one first. For the other seat, you can temporarily assign a current leader who has the GWC to run both roles, with the clear understanding that this is a transitional phase. By focusing first on the structure and then on the people and cash flow, you prevent political territory battles and build a clear blueprint for scaling the organization.