Our head of sales was a top performer when we were a ten million dollar company, but now that we are approaching thirty million, they are clearly drowning and refusing to admit they cannot scale. How do we handle this transition without losing their talent entirely?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic case of a leader hitting their ceiling. The skills required to manage a small team are entirely different from the skills needed to run a complex, multi-million dollar division. When a long-term leader drowns, it is rarely due to a lack of effort. It is almost always a capacity issue. You must address this situation directly, using the Accountability Chart as your objective guide. Schedule a private conversation outside of your Level 10 Meeting™. Start by reaffirming their value to the company, but be honest about the demands of the seat. Use the GWC™ framework to evaluate their performance. If they do not have the capacity to lead a large division, they are in the wrong seat. You need to design a new seat on your Accountability Chart that fits their unique strengths, such as a high-level individual contributor role or a key account manager seat. This allows them to focus on what they do best, like closing major deals or nurturing key relationships, while freeing up the leadership seat for someone who can manage the strategic scale of the department. Be prepared for some initial resistance or hurt pride. However, keeping them in a seat where they are failing is unfair to them and damaging to the business. Frame this transition as a strategic realignment that sets both the company and the individual up for long-term success.