The marketing leader who lasted nine months.

The founder told me the marketing leader they hired in August lasted nine months. The founder framed it as a hiring mistake. The marketing leader had been excellent at the previous company; they were over their head at this one.

Same person. Same skills. Different result. We pulled up the role specification: 12 hours/week of leadership; full ownership of brand, channels, hiring, board reporting; expected to also run weekly campaign reviews and oversee three vendors. The role was scoped for thirty hours of work compressed into twelve.

The marketing leader did not fail. The role design failed the marketing leader. Twelve hours of leadership cannot ship thirty hours of execution. The marketing leader noticed in month three, escalated in month five, burned out in month eight, left in month nine.

The founder is now hiring a second marketing leader into the same role. The pattern will repeat unless the role is redesigned first. Three of every four marketing-leader exits I have read in mid-market businesses trace to role design, not to the leader's competence.