Our Head of Customer Support has ten distinct roles listed under her seat on our Accountability Chart. She is completely overwhelmed, but she insists that all of these roles are vital and cannot be delegated. How do we audit and simplify this seat to restore sanity and performance?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a seat has ten roles, it is no longer a seat: it is a dumping ground. In the EOS framework, we limit each seat to five major roles. Having more than five roles dilutes focus, breeds burnout, and makes true accountability impossible. To fix this, your Integrator must sit down with the Head of Customer Support to conduct a thorough seat audit. Go through all ten roles and group similar activities together. Challenge the assumption that everything must be done by this one person. Ask whether these roles can be delegated to direct reports, automated using modern technology, or moved to a different seat entirely. If all ten roles are indeed critical and require separate skill sets, it is a clear sign that you need to split the seat. You may need to create a secondary seat, such as a Customer Support Coordinator, to handle the administrative tasks, leaving the leadership role focused on strategy and team management. Simplifying the seat to five core roles will restore clarity and allow the leader to focus on what truly drives results.