Managers, consider these things before you give someone a promotion

Originally posted in Fast Company

It’s that time of year when leaders get together to hash out their strategic plan for next year. It’s the time when they look at who’s performing well, and who they should and shouldn’t promote. It can be an exciting time, but it’s also a time that comes with considerable risks.

A leader sees the individual’s potential when they’re exhibiting mastery in their craft: top designer, best strategist, highest-performing salesperson, and most senior engineer. They’ve excelled year over year and progressed within their discipline. They often express a desire for more responsibility, visibility, and focus on their professional development.

And so, with all good intentions, managers take them from being at the top of their craft and ask them to step into roles they’ve never held, without the training and support they need. And they’re surprised when those employees fail.

GOOD EMPLOYEES DON’T ALWAYS MAKE GOOD MANAGERS

Managing people requires us to tap into our human-centered skills. We all have them, but we haven’t been encouraged to cultivate them because we spend most of our adult life trying to be better at our chosen craft.

Moving into a managerial role is usually considered a high point in one’s career. It’s a sign that the company recognizes your leadership potential. In actuality, being a good employee doesn’t automatically translate to being a good leader. That transition requires learning a lot of new skills, sometimes from scratch.

When new managers struggle, so do their teams. The likelihood of losing employees under a struggling manager is high. And that gets costly when you look at all that goes into replacing employees. Statistics on the cost of replacing a new hire run from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5 to two times the employee’s annual salary.

But the statistic that matters most isn’t widely or easily measured. It’s the unintended consequences of stripping a new manager of their confidence. That person has gone from a high-performing master of their craft to a wobbling, failing leader. And the impact is deeply felt and hard to shake–both for them and the organization. If they’re able to recover and stay with the organization, their reputation often takes years to build back up. If they leave, or are forced out because of their underperformance, they’re likely to make the same bad habits in another organization and continue to fail. To avoid this scenario, you need to set new managers up for success.

TRAIN BEFORE YOU PROMOTE

Many companies train managers when they move into a managerial role, but this is far too late. They need training before they step into a supervisory role, and they need the runway to learn the leadership skills they need.

Make a case for an associate program—one that teaches leadership skills without the promise of a promotion. This type of scenario gives potential leaders a chance to try out the role before they commit to taking it, and provides valuable learning opportunities, even if they don’t become managers.

INVEST IN A COACH

Too often we invest in individual coaching only once a manager is in real trouble. But if you truly want a new manager to thrive and grow, you need to make the coaching investment upfront. This way, they can have the space to bring their challenges and struggles, and they’ll be in a better spot to navigate the new role with dignity and confidence.

Try creating a mentorship program where more senior leaders take a mentor/coach role with newly promoted managers. It’ll provide continued growth for the seasoned leaders, and gives them more in-depth insights into what new managers struggle with at your organization.

GATHER LOW-STAKES FEEDBACK FROM THEIR TEAMS

It’s also important to make sure that your investment in new leaders is paying off. Provide regular opportunities for departments to give candid feedback. Not only does this reflect the growth and development of the new manager, but you’ll also be able to see what additional training or coaching can benefit them.

Gathering feedback through standardized 180 or 360 platforms independent of annual performance reviews is one way to give a new manager valuable insights–without feeling like it’s negatively impacting their more formal assessments. And it goes a long way toward feeding a broader growth mind-set, providing opportunities for meaningful conversations around increasing their leadership skills. Creating the culture of feedback early on in a manager’s career sets them up to ask for feedback–and to value and act on it–throughout their professional lives.

When you invest in your employees’ growth, you deepen their engagement. Any investment in your managers is also an investment in their teams. So provide them the training they deserve, the coaching that will help them engage, and the feedback from their teams that will keep everyone thriving. You’ll be so glad you did.

IMAGE: Photo: bernardbodo/iStock

When a Top Performer Wants to Leave, Should You Try to Stop Them?

Originally posted in Harvard Business Review

You’re the manager of a high-performing team of great people. The team has hit its stride; members have even developed a bit of a shorthand with each other that helps them weather challenges and nail deadlines.

Then a core member of the group gives notice that they’re leaving.

It’s easy to assume retaining them is the best outcome for the company, the team, the work — and for you. So, naturally, you immediately try to figure out how to keep your prized team member.  Could you get them promoted? Or at least get them a raise? Would just giving them more responsibility convince them to stay?

I’ve worked as a leadership coach for over 10 years, and I’ve found that when managers face this situation with humanity and empathy for the individual team member — prioritizing their needs and letting them go if that’s what’s best for them — the result can often be a more positive outcome for both the individual and the company.

First, when managers have honest discussions with their employee about what chose them to seek a new opportunity, it focuses the conversation on what the employee wants, and what the manager can actually control. Sometimes it’s a matter of a raise or title change, which may offer a chance for resolution with minimal impact to a team.

But when an individual’s motivations for leaving are outside their manager’s control, using money or a promotion as incentive to stay becomes a short-term solution to a larger issue and just postpones the eventual financial costs associated with hiring and training their replacement. If your employee’s concerns remain unaddressed, they’ll likely suffer from low morale and be less productive, which in turn has negative effects on those around them. In these cases, it’s best for all parties to let that person go.

Second, there is opportunity in the unknown. Though it may not be your first inclination to consider a big change to your team as a positive thing, a departure creates space for team members to stretch and contribute in new ways, reimagining the role they want to play. It is also a natural moment to bring in additional contributors with fresh perspectives, and explore different directions and possibilities for the work.

Finally, treating employees empathetically and showing them they’re valued as people, not just workers, has positive effects that ripple through the rest of the team and beyond. According to a 2015 Gallup study, “employees who feel as though their manager is invested in them as people are more likely to be engaged” in their work, behavior that’s strongly connected to business outcomes like productivity, innovation, and profitability.

Whether these benefits materialize if the employee does choose to leave hinges on the tone you set for the team. Frame the situation optimistically instead of treating it like impending doom. Share your excitement for your departing team member’s growth. Explain the opportunities for the team. Acknowledge the emotional and practical impact on the team. Answer questions — about the reasons for the departure, why the individual wasn’t able to be convinced to stay, and about how the team will be affected — with a balance of transparency, compassion, and respect.

Take my experience with Chad, whom I had mentored when we worked together at a previous company. When I took on a new position leading a team that needed to spark and implement creative ideas, I knew Chad would be an ideal partner to bring on. He was a unicorn: the perfect blend of visual designer, software developer, and innovative problem-solver — with a sense of humor — and someone I could rely on to be my personal voice of reason. For the next 18 months, our team did amazing work together. But then, Chad came to me with news that threatened to turn everything we’d achieved upside down: he had an offer from another company.

It felt like his timing could not have been worse. He was my only software developer, and we were deep in the middle of building a learning product with a hard deadline, something unique that wouldn’t be easy for someone to jump in and finish. I was certain the project would unravel without him.

But Chad had trusted me enough to tell me about the offer before it was final, and I felt like I had to consider his needs, too. When I began to step back and think about it from Chad’s point of view, his move made sense. While we’d done some innovative things together, he needed more complex challenges and the community of having others in his discipline to help him develop. When we talked through his options, including negotiating his title and salary at our firm, it was clear that I couldn’t give him what he needed, and that his best option was to take the offer.

We delivered the tough message to our team together, bringing them through our decision-making process and allowing them to ask questions about how they would be affected. I shared my belief that Chad’s absence would be an opportunity to imagine new directions to take our work, and I showed my commitment to supporting each of them through the change by making time for deeper development conversations and making space for individuals to try new roles and projects.

Envisioning the possibilities and potential for the future galvanized the team. We reorganized and decided to tackle some of the work we’d previously tabled. A few of the team members took on new responsibilities. And when we hired new members, they were strategic for the team we were becoming, instead of just replacing Chad to remain the team we were.

I’ve long believed that the role of manager is for life. You’re stepping into a role that provides support, development, and caring for individuals as they navigate some of their most impactful decisions — ones about their career.

What happened to the team since Chad left? Some rose into leadership positions. Some gained new skills. Others gleaned insights about themselves that changed the course of their careers. And where is Chad today? He’s imagining a new future for himself, and I’m right there with him, offering him mentoring, coaching, and often just listening.

IMAGE: Thomas Jackson/Getty Images