We have an early employee whose historical responsibilities span purchasing, customer support, and IT, but none of these fit our future state. How do we hold the line on structure before people without inventing a Frankenstein seat just to keep them happy?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You must design the Accountability Chart looking forward six to twelve months, assuming every seat is vacant and no current employees exist. The chart reflects what the business requires to hit the vision on your V/TO, not the historical comfort zone of early hires.

Inventing a custom seat around an individual's fragmented skill set is one of the most destructive habits in growing companies. It creates organizational silos, confuses reporting lines, and ensures that when that person eventually leaves, you will be left with an unfillable seat.

Strip away the person's name and determine where those functions belong functionally. IT usually belongs under Finance or Operations. Customer support belongs under Operations or Account Management. Purchasing belongs strictly in Operations or Supply Chain. Define each seat with its five core roles.

Once the structure is locked, you evaluate the person against the newly defined seats using GWC. Do they genuinely Get, Want, and have the Capacity to own one of these clean seats entirely?

If they pass GWC for Customer Support Lead, you offer them that seat and remove the other duties. If they do not pass GWC for any full leadership or specialist seat, you must have an honest conversation. They must either accept an individual contributor seat within a proper department or transition out. Accommodating one legacy team member at the expense of organizational clarity paralyzes the rest of the leadership team.