Most of our leadership team members are still sitting in multiple seats on our Accountability Chart, which creates confusion about their primary focus. How do we methodically untangle dual seats at the executive level?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In early growth stages, wearing multiple hats is necessary. However, as your company approaches operational maturity, having executives occupy two or three leadership seats guarantees mediocrity across all of them. When one person runs both Sales and Marketing, or Operations and Finance, they will naturally favor the seat they enjoy and neglect the one that demands real structural work.

To untangle dual seats, follow a disciplined three-step sequence:

First, isolate the seats on paper. Look at your Accountability Chart without names attached. Define the five core roles for each seat as if the company were fully staffed and operating at double its current revenue. This forces you to acknowledge that the work of running two major seats cannot realistically fit into a fifty-hour workweek.

Second, evaluate your executives using GWC for each separate seat. An executive might Get, Want, and have the Capacity to lead Operations, but only have the capacity to maintain a basic holding pattern in Finance. Identify which seat represents their highest and best use, and officially assign them to that single seat as their primary focus.

Third, build a sixty-to-ninety-day Delegation and Elevation plan for the secondary seat. Document the recurring processes, establish weekly measurables, and identify whether the seat should be filled by an internal promotion, an external executive hire, or an outsourced specialist.

Do not try to vacate all secondary seats in a single quarter. Untangle one critical seat at a time using quarterly Rocks until every member of your executive table owns exactly one seat and one set of measurables.