September 2026
tried helping him see the bigger picture, had tried getting him to look past accomplishing the immediate task, time and time again… to no avail.
Okay. Time for the truth, inconvenient as it may be.
Brenden had originally been hired as a project manager, a role that was well suited to his gifts and wiring. But that wasn’t the role he was in any longer, and ironically the qualities that made him an asset as a project manager were making him a liability as a VP.
The answer to her exasperated question was clear: “Alright. Let’s be honest. Brenden isn’t a bad fit for the company. He is actually a good one. But he seems to be a bad fit for the role. He is in the wrong seat. And he’ll continue to be a liability if you allow him to stay in it.”
“The old adage ‘People are
your most important asset’
turns out to be wrong.
People are not your most
important asset. The right
people are.”
—Jim Collins
Here’s a labor reality that no one wants to face: Allowing a person to stay in a role that isn’t a good fit for them is unfair and unkind to that person. Furthermore, it is unfair and unkind to the rest of the team, the company, the mission, and more.
In his famous book, Good to Great, Jim Collins popularized the idea: Right people. Right seats. Using the analogy of a bus, he explained that the great leaders of great companies “did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off) and then figured out where to drive it.”
Food for Thought
When faced with a challenge like the one Paula experienced in the story, here are some questions to consider:
Is the person in question the right person for the bus, but just in the wrong seat?
If you knew then what you know now about this person, would you still have hired them or promoted them?
If this person resigned today, would you feel disappointed, or would you feel secretly relieved?
Legendary University of Notre Dame football coach, Knute Rockne put it well: “As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”