Deciding when to hire another VP starts with one question: does the company need more leadership, or more people to carry out the work? When a growing company feels stretched thin, the instinct is to add senior leadership. A Director joins, then a VP, then an SVP. Six months later, the team is still overloaded, and the org chart looks more impressive than the results.
At Monarch Talent Solutions, we have watched growing companies repeat this pattern more than once. In the companies we have worked with, the pattern points to a capacity problem: the strategy, decisions, and ownership are covered, and too few people are available to carry out the work. The solution is to build the team beneath your leaders, and this article shows how to confirm the diagnosis and what to hire.
Why Another Executive Does Not Solve a Capacity Problem
Senior leaders have a clear and necessary job. They set strategy, make decisions, develop teams, and own major areas of the business, and that job still needs people underneath it to execute. When a group of highly compensated executives is spending its time on work that belongs two or three levels below them, adding one more executive to the group adds one more person who is absorbing that same work.
The strain is measurable. Gallup identifies unmanageable workload as one of the five primary causes of burnout and says these causes are largely within the control of leaders and managers. Its research on team structure adds a related finding: managers spend a median of 40% of their time on individual contributor work, and managers who spend more than that report lower engagement.
Three Signs You Need More Doers
Start with one question: where is the work getting stuck? Then look at the org chart, who is doing what, and how your highest-paid people spend their time. Three patterns point to a capacity gap.
- Executives are regularly working several levels below the level they were hired to operate at.
- Every senior leader is overwhelmed at the same time.
- Strategy is slow to turn into results because everyone is busy with day-to-day tasks.
Each pattern tells you where the next hire belongs. When all three describe your company, the issue is the number of people available to execute, and another title at the top will not change that.
What to Hire Instead of Another VP
A capacity problem calls for a different kind of hire. Instead of another VP, hire an Accounting Manager and two Senior Accountants. Instead of a second SVP beside the first, give the first SVP a Director who can own a function, with a team beneath that Director who can execute.
Leaders also struggle when they have no one to lead. A VP hired to run a function looks like a poor fit when the role was never staffed to succeed. Before deciding that a leader is underperforming, check whether the team around them exists.
The leader in each seat still matters. Gallup’s research concludes that manager talent matters more than span of control, so the strength of the people you hire counts as much as the structure around them. When the gap is a function and not a title, clear role definitions help. Our comparison of a finance business partner and a fractional CFO shows how two similar-sounding roles solve different problems, and our piece on how the accounting role has evolved explains why outdated assumptions lead to mis-scoped hires.
Hiring the Doers Takes Planning Too
Building a team underneath your leaders is hard to do on short notice. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 124,200 openings for accountants and auditors each year, and the supply of new accountants has been shrinking: schools awarded 55,152 accounting bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2023-24, down 6.6% from the prior year, according to AICPA data reported by the Journal of Accountancy. Enrollment is recovering, with four-year accounting enrollment up 8.9% in spring 2026, though those students are not yet in the workforce.
Capable Senior Accountants and Accounting Managers are in demand, so the search for them deserves the same care as an executive hire. Our 13 accounting interview questions to assess expertise help you evaluate candidates, and if a leadership seat stays open after you have built underneath it, our guide to whether a senior role is too critical for contingent search covers how to choose a search model.
Build the Team the Work Requires
When the work is stuck below your leaders, the smartest hire is three strong doers who free those leaders to lead. Growth does not require the most senior person you can afford in every open seat, and the team you build should reflect the work your business needs done.
If you are deciding what your team needs next, partner with Monarch to work through it.
