October 2025 Newsletter
Burning Questions from the C-Suite
From a Right Hand: Do I Need My Own Right Hand?
Right Hands often ask Do I need my own Right Hand? Their CEO might be prodding . . . er, encouraging . . . that key RH to get a RH of their own. The CEO sees how busy their RH has become. They’re starting to feel the relief and joy of having a RH themselves, and they want their RH to experience that same partnership. They want the scalability that comes from having a leadership bench.
A Right Hand is two things:
A leader for the rest of the team. A RH is not an extra pair of hands to do more of the work the team is doing. They’re a second leader. A high performer who can make decisions, not just carry out tasks. They teach others, manage priorities, and represent the leader’s intent when the leader is not in the room.
A brain partner for the Lead. They’re a trusted confidant and co-collaborator. They help think through the strategy work that belongs to the leader, not just the execution work that belongs to the team.
Having a RH can be wonderful, but it’s also expensive and potentially distracting. And the hiring and onboarding process will increase management workload for several weeks before it ever starts to relieve that workload.
So how do you know it’s time? Here are six signs that you need leadership help, not just another team member, better processes, or cooler tech.
Seven or more direct reports
Seven seems to be the magic number where leaders feel stretched too thin. When that seventh direct is added, it may be time to look closely at your structure. Are you spending more time firefighting than leading? Are you still able to give each person meaningful attention and direction? If you’re consistently managing reactively rather than proactively, the role may have outgrown a single manager.New scope
Maybe you’ve just been given a new team or function to manage. Or a major new client or a big initiative such as an AI rollout, a technology implementation, or market expansion. Think of it as an early warning sign that the role has expanded, and the workload, complexity, and risk have expanded with it. You may be able to keep up for a while through sheer effort, but more leadership capacity could be needed for the long haul.A big miss
We’re not talking about the small things we all wish we’d done better. We mean a big failure: a huge customer commitment, a key operational deliverable, a project the whole company was counting on. Something expensive, visible, or reputational. When a mistake like that happens, it’s easy to beat yourself up. But often, the cause isn’t lack of effort. It’s lack of capacity. You didn’t have the mental bandwidth, margin, or extra hour it would have taken to catch the issue before it became a problem. A fresher head, a second perspective, or a bit more time would have prevented it.A big change
For example, did the company sign a new customer contract with much higher service levels or a roll out technology that transformed all the work processes? Big changes require concentrated management attention. When leaders try to absorb that attention into an already full schedule, quality drops somewhere else. Bringing in a RH early in the transition allows you to shepherd the new thing while still managing the rest of the business effectively.Too many long days
If you’ve personally worked late or long more than five times this month, it might be time to look closer. Are you doing all your “leader work” after hours? If planning, coaching, performance management, and strategy never happen during the regular shift, you may have exceeded one person’s sustainable capacity. If you’re working extra-long 50 percent of the time (about ten days a month) you’ve likely crossed the line from busy to overloaded. Leadership done from exhaustion is probably not the leadership you want to be remembered for.More team complaints
If team members have complained about you more than three times recently, take note. When they call out your availability, your level of support, or how hard it is to get your attention, they aren’t necessarily being disloyal. They could be telling you that they’re feeling the strain of your limited capacity.
Adding a RH isn't about easing your load. It's about protecting the quality of leadership that drives the business. It's about maintaining judgment, visibility, and decision making at the level the company needs. Approach this question as rationally as you would any other decision in the business, and you'll figure out the right answer for your own context.
Famous Right Hands (Snap, Snap)
There is no denying the electricity of Morticia and Gomez Addams. Every room at the Addams Family mansion is bigger and more alive when both are present. Yet they couldn’t be more different: Morticia is stately, poised, precise. Gomez is loud, eccentric, and more than a little wild.
Morticia and Gomez offer a great example of how two partners with differing styles and strengths can create magic together. The two rarely approach day-to-day decisions the same, but they understand and make space for each other. Neither one ever operates completely separate. They clearly state their own needs and run their own domains. They listen to each other intently, celebrate each other’s strengths, and never undermine in front of the children. They collaborate and trust, and they truly like each other. Top-performing Right Hand relationships between partners have this same dynamic. You might both be owners, but you each play your own role. Like Morticia and Gomez, you understand that getting things done isn’t about who owns what; rather, it’s about who does what. The org chart describes function, not ownership.
Gomez and Morticia also show that passion and purpose can go hand in hand. Their work, whether running the Addam’s large estate or managing their many business ventures, seems fueled by shared enthusiasm and joy in the mission. A CEO and Right Hand with that kind of unity can make even the strangest, most ambitious visions come to life. Even if some of their staffers are missing body parts or are prone to walk in graveyards.
And yes, we know that Thing is the true Right Hand on the show.
Sources: TheTVProfessor, Collider
Recommendation
“Management is not what you do to someone; it’s what you provide for someone.” Onpage 79 of How to Be a Great Boss by Gino Wickman and Renè Boer.
This book offers practical tips for how to lead and manage people. At 164 pages, it’s an easy read for any manager, senior or junior. Especially useful: Chapter 7 on the five management practices. And Chapter 9 provides great clarity on the fix/fire question. The book will be practical and helpful even if you don’t use EOS to run your company. It’s one of the most broadly applicable books in the EOS Traction library and is not overstuffed with jargon like some other pubs in that series. BTW, if you’re looking for an EOS implementer, we can give you some recommendations of people our clients have worked directly with.
News
Introducing Lessons and Right Hand School
We have released Lessons, a new every-two-weeks learning
activity designed to help leaders strengthen their people management skills. Each Lesson includes curated articles, callouts on what matters most, and a short practice activity to apply right away.
Drawing on her doctoral training in adult learning, Heather’s Lessons
are built to be digestible, relevant, and immediately useful—never just
another generic reading.
Lessons are free for current Launch and Level Up clients and will soon be available to everyone else as part of Right Hand School, launching in a few weeks.
What’s included with Right Hand School:
Biweekly Lessons
Office hours and Q&A with Heather
Private community space
Monthly training video
Join the Right Hand School waitlist to get updates and first enrollment opportunities.
Heather Survived Speaker School
Heather spent three days in Florida with the fabulous Mikki Williams and four other speaker-students. The takeaways from Mikki’s Speaker School were incredible, and Heather has already overhauled her flagship presentation to resonate even better with CEO and key executive audiences. Thanks to the Vistage chairs and others who recommended that Heather connect with Mikki.
What can we do for you?
At Practical PhD, we help companies Get the Right Hand Right so they're ready for top leadership transition in 1-3 years:
Find and hire a Right Hand
Onboard a new Right Hand
Teach an aspiring Right Hand the job
Performance-manage a struggling Right Hand
Create a phased leadership succession plan