Our Head of Customer Success has twelve bulleted roles listed under her seat on our Accountability Chart. She is burning out, but she insists she can handle all of them. How do we determine when a seat has simply accumulated too many roles and needs to be split?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for high-performing employees to accumulate roles over time, especially in fast-growing companies. However, when a single seat on your Accountability Chart lists more than five major roles, it becomes an unmanageable Frankenstein seat. Even if the person holding the seat has the skills, they will eventually run out of capacity, leading to burnout, dropped balls, and operational bottlenecks.

To determine if a seat needs to be split, run a rigorous GWC™ capacity check during your quarterly reviews. Ask yourself if the person truly has the physical hours and mental focus to execute all of their assigned roles at a high level. If the answer is no, it is time to restructure.

Begin by listing all the roles currently crammed into the seat. Group these roles into two logical, distinct functions. For example, you might split a combined marketing and sales seat into one dedicated marketing seat and one dedicated sales seat. Create the new seat on your Accountability Chart, define its roles, and decide whether to hire an external candidate or promote someone from within. Splitting the seat allows your high performer to focus their energy where they can deliver the highest value, which ultimately protects your bottom line.