Alisa Cohn identifies three signs an executive can't scale with your company: they miss targets despite feedback, blame their team instead of owning problems, and feel overwhelmed without offering solutions. Most of the time, you need to replace them.
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Founders, especially first-time founders, have a difficult time seeing that maybe an executive on their team is not able to scale. So here are some markers to look for that they're not able to scale. Number 1, they're not getting results and they're not getting results repeatedly, even though you talk with them regularly about getting results. Number 2, they're blaming their team. That's a big no-no. Blaming your team means you are not ready to scale. Number 3, they're overwhelmed. And not only are they overwhelmed, but they're not fixing it. They're not saying to you, I'm overwhelmed, here's what I'm going to do about it. They're just saying, I'm overwhelmed and throwing their hands up. Those are specific markers that you are going to need to, first of all, have a real talk conversation with that executive. And number two, most likely going to have to find someone to replace that executive because that person is not ready to scale.