Some of the hardest people decisions in business are not about poor performers.
They are about good people who have been loyal, committed & valuable for years, but are no longer in the right seat.
That is much harder.
If someone is clearly underperforming, behaving badly or refusing to meet expectations, the conversation is relatively straightforward.
But what happens when the person is trusted, liked, hardworking & deeply connected to the business?
That is where loyalty can start getting in the way of clarity.
Loyalty Is Valuable, but It Is Not a Job Description
I value loyalty enormously.
Someone who has stood by the business through difficult years, helped solve problems, supported the founder & grown with the organisation has earned respect.
But loyalty alone does not mean someone is still right for the role they are in.
Businesses change.
Roles become bigger. Complexity increases. The demands on leaders shift.
What was once a manageable role can become far more demanding, requiring different skills, judgement, experience or leadership capability.
The person may not have failed.
The seat may simply have changed.
That distinction matters because leaders often keep trying to fix the person when the real issue is fit.
Sometimes the Seat Outgrows the Person
This happens a lot in growing businesses.
Someone joins early, proves themselves, takes on more responsibility & gradually becomes a key leader.
For years, it works brilliantly.
Then the business doubles in size.
There are more people, more moving parts, more complexity & more decisions.
The role that once required solid functional knowledge may now require strategic thinking, stronger people leadership, commercial judgement & the ability to work across the whole business.
The person has not suddenly become less capable. The business has changed around them. And sometimes the role has grown faster than they have.
That can be incredibly uncomfortable to acknowledge, particularly when someone has been there for a long time.
The Wrong Seat Can Make a Good Person Look Average
This is one of the saddest things I see.
A genuinely good person starts struggling.
Deadlines slip. Decisions are delayed. Their confidence drops. The team becomes frustrated. The leader becomes frustrated.
And slowly, the conversation shifts from, “This person has always been brilliant” to, “What is going on with them?”
Sometimes what is going on is very simple.
They are in the wrong seat.
When someone is working in a role that does not suit their strengths, capability or natural way of working, the business usually sees the symptoms before it sees the cause.
We start talking about motivation, attitude, communication or performance.
But if the role itself is wrong, coaching around the edges will only get you so far.
Define the Seat Before You Judge the Person
This is where the Accountability Chart® becomes incredibly useful.
Instead of starting with the person & asking what work they can do, start with the business.
- What does this seat actually need to own?
- What outcomes is it accountable for?
- What decisions sit with this role?
- What capability does the business genuinely need here now?
Then assess the person against the seat as it exists today.
Not as it existed three years ago. Not based on how much you like them. Not based on how long they have been there. Not based on everything they have done for the business in the past.
Those things matter in how you handle the conversation.
They do not change what the seat requires.
Loyalty Often Creates Delay
This is usually where things get difficult.
Leaders know something is not working, but they wait.
They give the person more time. They lower expectations. They quietly take work back. They add another person around them. They create extra layers of support.
They avoid the conversation because they do not want to hurt someone who has been loyal.
None of this is malicious.
It usually comes from care.
But care without clarity can create a different kind of damage.
The person may already know they are struggling.
The team definitely knows.
Other leaders start compensating. Resentment builds. The person you were trying to protect can end up feeling less successful, less confident & more exposed.
That is not a particularly kind outcome either.
“They’ve Been With Us Forever” Is Not a Role Requirement
There are some phrases I hear in leadership teams that immediately tell me the conversation is becoming emotional.
“They’ve been here from the beginning.”
“They know the business better than anyone.”
“They’ve always been loyal.”
“We owe them.”
All of those things may be true.
But none of them is a requirement of the role.
A business can value someone deeply & still recognise that a particular seat is no longer the right fit.
Those ideas are not mutually exclusive.
You can honour someone’s contribution without pretending the current structure still works.
You can treat someone with respect without avoiding reality.
You can be grateful for the past & still make a different decision for the future.
Sometimes the Right Answer Is a Different Seat
Being in the wrong seat does not automatically mean being in the wrong company.
Sometimes the person is absolutely right for the organisation, but the current role is asking something of them that does not fit.
There may be another seat where they can thrive.
A great operator may struggle as a people leader.
A brilliant technical person may hate managing a team.
Someone who was excellent in a broad early-stage role may perform much better in a narrower specialist role as the business grows.
Moving someone into a better-fitting seat can be a relief.
For the person.
For the team.
And for the leader who has been trying to make the current arrangement work.
The goal is not to punish someone for not fitting a role.
It is to create the best possible fit between people & the work the business needs done.
But Sometimes There Is No Other Seat
This is the harder reality.
Sometimes there is not another appropriate role.
That does not make the person bad.
It does mean the leadership team eventually needs to make a decision.
This is where loyalty can become dangerous if it turns into indefinite avoidance.
Keeping someone in a role they cannot succeed in is not really loyalty.
It can become fear.
Fear of the conversation.
Fear of upsetting the team.
Fear of losing history.
Fear of feeling ungrateful.
Fear of being seen as ruthless.
But delaying a decision does not remove the consequences.
It simply spreads them across a longer period.
The Rest of the Team Is Watching
This part is easy to underestimate.
When a leadership team keeps someone in a seat they are clearly not owning, everybody else notices.
People start wondering whether standards actually matter.
Strong performers may become frustrated because they are carrying extra weight.
Managers may stop holding their own people accountable if they believe senior leaders are unwilling to do the same.
The message becomes:
Performance matters, unless you have been here long enough.
That is not a healthy standard.
Loyalty should influence the care, respect & support you give someone.
It should not create a different set of expectations.
Have the Conversation Before the Situation Becomes Personal
The longer you wait, the more emotional the situation usually becomes.
That is why I prefer these conversations earlier.
Start with the role.
Be clear about what the business now needs.
Talk honestly about where the gaps are.
Ask whether the person still wants the role as it has evolved.
Explore whether there is another seat that suits them better.
Do not build a prosecution case.
Do not pretend everything is fine until the day you suddenly announce a major change.
And do not turn a structural problem into a character judgement.
The conversation is not:
“You are no longer good enough.”
It is:
“This role now requires something different, & we need to be honest about whether this is still the right fit.”
That is a much healthier conversation.
Good People Deserve Clarity Too
Sometimes leaders think keeping someone in a struggling role is the compassionate choice.
I am not convinced it is.
Good people deserve the chance to succeed.
They deserve to understand what is expected.
They deserve honest feedback.
They deserve the opportunity to move into a role where their strengths are useful rather than constantly feeling behind.
And if there is no right seat for them in the business, they deserve a respectful conversation rather than another year of quiet frustration.
Clarity can be uncomfortable.
But confusion is usually worse.
Loyalty Should Shape How You Act, Not What You Avoid
Loyalty matters.
History matters.
Contribution matters.
But none of those things changes the needs of the business.
The strongest leadership teams can hold both truths at once:
This person has been incredibly valuable.
And this seat may no longer be right for them.
That is not betrayal.
It is leadership.
A carefrontational approach means treating the person with respect while being honest about reality.
Because keeping a good person in the wrong seat does not protect them.
It usually just delays the conversation everyone already knows needs to happen.