Are You Too Good to Get Promoted?

Sounds odd, doesn’t it?

I recently had a client who had this exact problem. He had been managing his team for over 5 years and they had performed very well. By traditional metrics, this manager had done a fantastic job with his team – they consistently achieved their targets, he had almost zero turnover and doubled the size of the team during his tenure. He developed new hires into strong performers within six months and promoted two of his stars into other areas of the organization. He was a model manager.

What he said next took me by surprise. In his latest review, he addressed that he’d been passed over again for the opportunity for a promotion. Why?

This manager was too vital. The company couldn’t afford to risk losing productivity by transitioning to a new manager. While he was a great manager by the book, he lacked structure, and a hand-off would be risky.

Although his team performed well, there were few metrics to which he held them accountable. This frustrated his boss who believed the team could improve performance if they were managed more closely and focused on improving their processes at an individual level.

Several of his team members were frustrated because he would rescue them when they got stuck and would finish projects for them. As a result, team members became dependent upon one another to the point where no one could function effectively without the others.

When I asked how he divided his time between supervising, holding them accountable to goals, training and coaching on new skills, and mentoring to improve individual performance, he was stumped.

He was a very typical manager. Although he was an excellent practitioner, he had been promoted into his role without experience or processes to lead a team.

Instinctively, he connected with people, so his team responded to him. They liked, respected, and worked hard for him. But at the end of the day, he lacked the skills to help them develop and grow.

Taking your team to new levels requires great people skills combined with a structured process to supervise, train, coach, and mentor them on their specific needs. 

If you feel you might be guilty of these common pitfalls, or wondering how to add strategy, structure, and tools to help your team develop their skills, contact us about our management programs.

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