Our Head of Engineering is a brilliant technical mind who completely GWC's his seat, but his abrasive behavior is toxic to our culture, meaning he fails the People Analyzer. Our leadership team is afraid that firing him will stall our product development and kill our exit valuation. How do we resolve this Right Person, Right Seat dilemma?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic Right Seat, Wrong Person dilemma. It is one of the hardest calls a business owner has to make, especially when preparing for an exit. However, keeping a toxic high-performer is a short-sighted strategy that will ultimately destroy your company's value.

When you tolerate someone who fails the People Analyzer, you send a clear message to the rest of the company that your core values do not matter. This destroys employee trust, ruins teamwork, and leads to your best people leaving.

To resolve this, you must handle the situation with clarity and speed.

First, have a direct, objective conversation with him. Use the People Analyzer to show him exactly where he is falling below the bar on your core values. Give him clear examples of his abrasive behavior and set a firm thirty-day timeline for him to correct it.

Second, immediately start documenting his technical processes and transfer his tribal knowledge. Treat this as an urgent priority to protect your product development pipeline.

Third, if he does not make a dramatic and permanent change within thirty days, you must transition him out. A buyer looking at your business during due diligence will spot a toxic culture and key-person dependency instantly. Replacing him with a leader who fits your culture will stabilize your team and build a scalable business that is ready for a clean exit.