How to Know If You Have the Right People in the Right Seats

Most leadership problems are people problems. Bad culture fit in your ops role? Your processes crumble. Wrong salesperson in a closing role? Revenue stalls. Right person, wrong seat? They burn out and leave.

Pinnacle's approach is simple: map every seat-holder on two dimensions, and act.

The Talent Assessment Matrix

Plot every leader on a 2×2 grid:

X-axis (Productivity): Can they do the job? Do they deliver results?
Y-axis (Cultural Fit): Do they share your values? Do they show up the way you need them to?

The Four Quadrants

A-Players (High Productivity, High Cultural Fit)

These people are your keepers.
Invest in them. Develop them. Give them bigger seats as the company grows.
They're rare. Protect them.

B-Players (High Productivity, Low Cultural Fit)

They deliver results but they don't fit the culture.
Two paths: Help them improve (coaching, clarity on values), or move them to a seat where culture fit matters less.
Some of your best individual contributors might be Bs in leadership.

C-Players (Low Productivity, High Cultural Fit)

They're great people but can't execute in their current seat.
Often fixable. Wrong role, wrong skills, wrong coach, or wrong timing.
Invest in development first. If no improvement in 90 days, move them to a smaller seat or off the team.

D-Players (Low Productivity, Low Cultural Fit)

These are your biggest risk.
Their presence erodes culture and results.
You need to move them quickly. Off the team if possible; a smaller, supported seat if the relationship is worth salvaging.

How to Score Each Seat

Be honest. The scorecard is private, but it has to be real.

Productivity (scale 1–10):

1–3: Consistently misses targets, requires heavy management
4–6: Hits some goals, but inconsistently
7–8: Regularly delivers, meets expectations
9–10: Exceeds goals, raises team performance

Cultural Fit (scale 1–10):

1–3: Works against team values, actively divisive
4–6: Neutral; doesn't reinforce values but doesn't undermine them
7–8: Actively demonstrates values, supports culture
9–10: Embodies values, others follow their lead

The Hard Conversations

Once you've mapped your team, you need to act. That means:

A-Players: Celebrate. Invest. Give them equity, growth, autonomy.

B-Players: Direct conversation. "You're excellent in execution. Here's where we need cultural alignment." Coaching or repositioning.

C-Players: Support plan. "Here's what success looks like for your role in the next 90 days. Here's the help we're providing. Let's check in monthly."

D-Players: Exit conversation. "This isn't working. Here's what happens next."

The Timing

Do this once per quarter, at minimum. Your Tactical Meeting is the right place for it. 20 minutes: review scores, identify the D-Players and C-Players who need moves.

Many leaders avoid this. They hope things improve on their own. They don't. Your D-Player stays, takes up 20% of your energy, and infects culture.

The Reality

You probably have 20–30% of your seats misaligned. That's not a failure of hiring — it's the reality of growth. People who were excellent at $5M revenue might not be the right fit at $50M. Good people in the wrong seat. It happens.

The Pinnacle framework gets you clear and moving fast.

Ready to audit your team? Chat with our AI coach. It'll walk you through scoring and planning your first repositioning.