My Integrator and I have a great relationship, but lately we are experiencing friction because she is trying to hold me accountable to the roles in my Visionary seat, and I feel like she is micromanaging the founder. How do we draw the line on our Accountability Chart between healthy accountability and disrespectful boundary-crossing?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This friction is incredibly common, but it stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the Accountability Chart. In an EOS® organization, the Integrator is the boss of the operating organization, which includes the Visionary. Yes, you may own the company, but on the Accountability Chart, the Visionary seat reports directly to the Integrator. This means your Integrator has not only the right, but the absolute obligation, to hold you accountable to the five roles defined under your Visionary seat. If one of your roles is big relationship building or industry research, and you are failing to do those things because you are busy meddling in operations, your Integrator must call you out. To eliminate the feeling of micromanagement, you need to establish clear boundaries during your weekly Same Page Meeting™. Use this time to align on your respective spheres of influence. The Integrator must respect your creative genius and strategic foresight, while you must respect her authority to run the daily business and manage the team. If she is asking you for status updates on every minor task, that is micromanagement. If she is holding you to your committed Rocks and the core measurables on your Scorecard, that is healthy accountability. You must swallow your ego and accept that being the founder does not exempt you from accountability. If you cannot submit to the authority of your Integrator within the boundaries of the operating structure, you will stunt your company's growth and make it impossible to build a self-sustaining business that can eventually exit.