Unintentional Damage

In my more than 30 year career, I have seen good employees promoted to their demise. Wait! Isn’t a promotion a good thing? Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.

Far to often, I have seen a star performer rewarded for their great performance with a big promotion to a manager role. In the bosses mind, their employee has mastered their role. They are undeniably recognized as the resident expert. They are so good, other employees seek their help.

Then, when an opening for an elevated manager role becomes available, they are easily promoted to that role. But, then they begin failing quickly in the new role.

Fix Them

At times I am brought in to help these new leaders because they are struggling. In some cases I can help them because they want to succeed, they are hungry to be better, and they simply need to develop their leadership skills.

In other cases, it quickly becomes clear that I can’t help them.

Just because you have a star player, does not automatically make them qualified for the next promotion. Too often, the  hiring manager’s decision is oversimplified:

Great Employee ≠ Great in any Role.

Ripple Affect

When done wrong, promoting a star employee can impact a large part of your organization. It can affect everyone that person interacts with.

A past client brought me in to work with his former star performer. They excelled in their job as a troubleshooter, problem solver, and even a team player. Everyone loved working with this employee. The business grew and needed a supervisor. Naturally, the star performer was the top candidate.

The problem? The star employee loved their former job and they were excellent at it. But, they never lead a project or a team. They didn’t know what leading was like and discovered that they enjoyed doing things not leading people.

Ready for Promotion

Years ago, I was part of a leadership team in a very large corporate department. There were several layers in the organization, (entry-level, senior consultants, team leaders, managers, etc.)

We were careful with promotions and outlined multiple factors that helped determine if someone was ready for a promotion. Some of those factors were time in the role, demonstrated skills, consistent reviews, and experience performing some of the functions in the “next level” role.

One of the best statements I heard one of my fellow managers say was that “someone is ready for promotion when others are surprised to learn that that person is not already in that role”. In other words, they have performed at that level and doing many of the functions of that role without the title.

What Can You Do?

Before promoting someone in your organization, list what demonstrated qualities you need in the “next level” position. Has your employee demonstrated those qualities? If not, how can you provide opportunities for them to gain that experience?

If you have an immediate need for a new position, try delegating some of the responsibilities of that role to your star employee. Discuss what they need to do to demonstrate that they are ready for that new role.

• Are you preparing someone in your organization for a promotion?
• How are they demonstrating that they are ready?
• What can you do to support them and provide them with opportunities?