Right People Right Seats: How to Know If It's a People Problem or a System Problem
A new client talking to her Business Operations Manager was convinced her team member’s underperformance was her fault:
“I haven’t given them enough of my time so I’m to blame. Maybe if I move them to a different role, they’ll do better.”
She was about to spend another 3-6 months, her time, and thousands of dollars, testing this theory.
Here’s what she told her: You’re not struggling because you’re a bad leader. You’re struggling because you’re trying to make a people decision based on guilt instead of data.
The right people right seats framework exists to solve exactly this problem. But most founders skip the most critical question: How do you actually know which one it is?
Why is it, our default setting is: It’s easier to blame yourself than to face the fact that you might have the wrong person in the seat. The truth is, without a clear framework for evaluating performance, you’ll never actually know which one it is.
The Problem Isn't Your Judgment. It's Your Lack of Framework
You don’t need more self-awareness and you definitely don’t need to be a better leader, or give more support.
What you do need is an objective way to separate people problems from system problems.
Right now you’re making people decisions based on:
- How guilty you feel
- How much time you have (or don’t have)
- How uncomfortable the conversation would be
- Whether you’ve “given them enough chances”
None of those are useful metrics for whether someone should stay in a role.
You either blame yourself (“I should have supported them better”) or you delay the decision (“Maybe they just need more time”).
Meanwhile, the cost compounds.
In Australia, a bad hire costs between 15-21% of that person’s salary on average. Some analyses put the true cost (once you factor in lost productivity, rework, delays, and team disruption) at 30-150% of their annual salary. One case study estimated a single poor-fit hire cost a small business $94,000 over 12-18 months.
But the part we don’t talk about enough is this: Most mis-hires aren’t because someone was the wrong person. It’s because the role was unclear, the onboarding was light or non-existent, or the business didn’t know exactly who they needed in the first place.
What Right People Right Seats Actually Means
Right people right seats is a principle from EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) that separates two distinct questions:
- Right People: Do they share our values? Do they fit our culture? Do they operate with integrity and ownership?
- Right Seats: Do they have the skills, drive, and capacity to excel in this specific role?
It sounds simple, but it’s transformational because it removes the emotional tangle from team evaluation.
You can have the right person in the wrong seat. That looks like: high initiative, great attitude, strong culture fit … but the role doesn’t match their strengths or energise them. They’re trying hard, but it’s clearly not their zone.
You can have the wrong person in any seat. That looks like: low ownership, constant need for direction, lack of follow-through … no matter how much support or structure you provide.
And critically: moving the wrong person to a different seat doesn’t make them the right person.
This is the distinction most founders miss. They see someone struggling and immediately think, “What if I just haven’t found their perfect role yet?” But sometimes, the issue isn’t the seat. It’s the person’s fundamental approach to work, ownership, and follow-through.
The right people right seats framework gives you permission to stop trying to save everyone and start building a team where everyone actually belongs.
The Tool That Takes Emotion Out of the Equation
When we have a concern about a team member at The Lever, we don’t agonise. We don’t second-guess. We use a tool from EOS called The People Analyser.
The People Analyser answers two fundamental questions:
- Are they the right person (do they share your core values and fit your culture?), and
- Are they in the right seat (do they Get it, Want it, and have Capacity to do the role)? It uses a simple rating system, + and – for core values, yes or no for GWC to give you objective clarity in 10 minutes. If someone is above the bar on values but has “no” answers on GWC, they’re the right person in the wrong seat. If they’re below the bar on values, no amount of role-shifting will fix it.
The power of The People Analyser is that it removes guilt and guesswork. You’re not making judgments about someone’s worth. You’re assessing objective criteria. And when someone falls below the bar, we use another EOS tool called IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) to address it: identify the specific gap, discuss what’s contributing to it, and solve with a clear action … training, role adjustment, conversation, or exit.
Real-World Example:
When The People Analyser Creates Clarity
Let us tell you what happened with that founder.
Before they spoke:
- She was convinced the underperformance was her fault
- She was planning to move the team member to a different role
- She was caught in a cycle of guilt and hope
The Diagnostic: Her Business Operations Manager used The People Analyser with her on a call. First, she was asked to rate this team member against her company’s core values.
Two of her core values are “Takes Ownership” and “Follows Through.” When asked to honestly assess this person, she gave them a +/- on ownership and a – on follow-through.
Then they moved to GWC:
- Get It: “Do they understand what the role requires without you having to constantly explain it?” Her answer: “No. I’m always having to clarify, re-explain, walk them through things I’ve already covered.”
- Want It: “Do they show initiative and ownership, or do they wait for you to tell them what to do?” Her answer: “They’re keen. They want to do well. But they don’t take the initiative. I have to prompt everything.”
- Capacity: “Do they have the time, skill, and bandwidth to actually do this work well?” Her answer: “Honestly… I don’t think they have the skill. And I don’t have the time to teach them.”
The People Analyser revealed the truth: This person was below the bar on core values (wrong person) and had two “no” answers on GWC (wrong seat). It wasn’t a role problem. It was a fit problem.
The Decision: Instead of spending another six months hoping a different role would work, she made the decision in one week.
She used IDS to structure the conversation:
- Identified the gap: “You’re working hard, but the core behaviours we need, taking ownership and following through without prompting, aren’t consistently showing up.”
- Discussed honestly: “I’ve been wondering if a different role might help, but looking at what our business needs, the gap isn’t about the seat. It’s about fundamental work approach.”
- Solved with clarity: They agreed on a transition plan. No drama. No blame.
The Outcome:
- She hired the right person for the role within a month
- The original team member found a better fit elsewhere (and told her later it was a relief)
- She reclaimed 5 hours per week she’d been spending on management and rework
The shift wasn’t just operational. It was psychological. She stopped blaming herself. She stopped making people decisions based on guilt. She started trusting the framework.
That’s what right people right seats actually does when you have a tool like The People Analyser. It removes the emotional weight so you can lead with clarity.
What Right People Right Seats Looks Like in Practice
When you implement right people right seats as your operating system:
At The Lever, this is exactly how we operate. We don’t have perfect people. But we have clear frameworks. And that makes all the difference.
Good people want to work in businesses with clarity, not chaos. They want to know they’re in the right seat, with the right support, doing work that matches their strengths.
When you get right people right seats working properly, recruitment becomes easier. Because your business becomes the kind of place good people actually want to join.
The Question You Really Need to Ask
The question isn’t: “What if it’s my fault they’re not working out?“
The question is: “Do I have a clear, objective way to evaluate fit … or am I making people decisions based on guilt and hope?”
Because here’s the truth:
Good leaders don’t avoid difficult decisions. They create systems that make those decisions clear.
You’re not a bad leader for having the wrong person in a seat. You’re a bad leader if you keep them there because you’re too guilty (or too unstructured) to make the call.
The real risk isn’t that you’ll make the wrong decision about someone. The real risk is that you’ll make no decision at all … and six months from now, you’re still in the same place, just more exhausted and more resentful.
Right people right seats gives you the framework to stop circling and start leading.
How Our Visionary Reset Quiz Can Help
If you want to see exactly where your business structure is failing you (and whether your team issues are people problems or system problems), take the Visionary Reset Quiz. It’s 10 minutes, and it will show you the pattern you can’t see from inside it.