SUCCESS RECIPE PART 4: WHEN A PROMOTION ISN’T A GOOD THING.

Many of us begin our careers starting out at the bottom of the ladder. We may have a College degree, but we mostly don’t have a whole lot of ‘real world’ experience fitting us for our career aspirations. That’s why we applied for entry-level positions. Or at least, that’s how it used to be. Entry-level meant just that: entry.?First rung on the ladder.?Ground level.?The starting place.?

Today, however, there are many ‘entry-level’ positions that require years of experience, College degrees, and all kinds of other requirements that clearly state that the position is only entry-level in terms of the pay grade, but not in entry-level responsibilities. Or, it’s an entry-level job, with entry-level pay, but someone decided that to be able to file documents and answer the phone, an MBA and 5 years experience in public relations is necessary.

But, once we’ve landed that entry-level position, we work hard and go way above and beyond to impress our boss. Not only is that a good work ethic, but we understand it could be the way to snag a promotion and land that dream job we’ve been aiming at all along.?

Our logic pays off and we finally get that promotion and we love it. We love the work we do and we love the challenges, the opportunities to expand our skills and experience.?Every day there is something to get excited about and we can’t wait to get to work in the morning.

We love it so much that, pretty soon, not only our immediate boss, but their boss, is earmarking us for yet another promotion - this time into a leadership position!?Exciting, right??

Well, don’t break out the champagne just yet!

That new leadership position turns out to be very different than we imagined. We soon discover it’s not taking us to a higher level of what we love doing.

Oh no. Instead, it’s a whole lot of admin. The kind we hate. Reports. Statistics. Projections. And being a leader is not as much fun as we imagined. It includes answering for our team’s mistakes, which are frequent. All because we don’t know how to manage or train, never mind lead them, because no one has trained us.?On top of all that, there are a whole lot of people (i.e. the team we’re supposed to be leading) who are probably more experienced and capable than we are.?People who have no hesitation in letting us know, that they know, we’re in over our head.

That promotion? It sucks. Not only do we hate admin, but we have absolutely no idea of how to manage, motivate and maintain a team of people.?So now, we dread work. Every. Single. Day.

Hmmm. Now what??

Do we do our best to battle through? Do we complain? Do we tell our boss they can keep the promotion and risk being side-lined for any future promotions, or worse, fired? Do we go to our leadership and explain that this promotion just isn’t working? Do we ask for training and if we do, will that make them think we’re incompetent? Do we even WANT to be trained? Or do we just find another job that allows us to go back to doing what we actually love doing??

Many just try to stick it out. The money is better and the title sounds impressive.?That’s great, of course, but money and prestige doesn’t count for much if the price is debilitating anxiety, stress and sleepless nights.

When people are put in this position it’s a failure on the part of their leadership. Here’s why:

Just because you have a dynamic salesperson on your team it doesn’t mean to say that they’re a great candidate for that sales manager position. Just because you have a financial whiz in the accounts department doesn’t mean they’ll be a great V.P. of Marketing.?

Leadership demands a whole different skill set than most other positions. Leaders have to wear multiple hats and don’t usually have the luxury of focusing exclusively on what they love doing - unless they love leading, motivating, empathizing, mediating, inspiring, administrating… the list goes on… and on…?

Not many people can assume a leadership role successfully without any training as to how to lead, or even manage a team. Without the proper training, that promotion can lead to disaster for all involved.

Being successful as a leader also means being able to mentor potential leaders.

Leadership potential, as yet undeveloped, may be present in that team member who is exceeding expectations in their current role. You know - the one who’s not just highly skilled at what they do, but is ultra-reliable, personable and a pleasure to work with… the one you feel really deserves to be promoted.?But then again, leadership potential may not be present.?

Just as importantly, that team member may not even want to be ‘promoted’ out of a position they love. They may really cringe at the thought of being responsible for reports, decisions, motivation etc.?

I’m not talking about someone who’s nervous about these different responsibilities, but is nevertheless motivated and excited to learn and increase their skill set. I’m talking about someone who’d rather scrub toilets than be a ‘manager’. And, who, if you promote them, will be a terrible manager and even worse leader, because it’s just not something they want to do.?

The key to successful leadership development, in my opinion, is to really understand the motivations, aspirations and anxieties of each team member. To see true potential for leadership as opposed to promoting based on current excellent performance.?

This is just as important as seeing beyond someone’s poor performance in order to understand the cause and then helping the team member to get beyond their current issues to become more productive. But, that’s a whole other topic for another article.?

The bottom-line is to identify what a team member wants to do, what they’re best at, and whether the leadership promotion job description aligns with those factors as well with their actual leadership potential.?Any misalignment in any of those areas could be a red flag.

As a leader looking to promote, or duplicate another leader, it’s our responsibility to understand what their aspirations are. To align their job description with their skills, talents and aspirations.?To help those who desire to lead to develop the experience and skills that will equip them to be great leaders. To help those who don’t want to lead, but want instead to be great at what they’re passionate about, to fulfill their potential and be the best they can possibly be within our organization. By doing this, not only will we be better leaders, but we’ll raise more great leaders and build highly motivated and passionate teams. People who will excel and not only love what they do, but be our organizations most valuable competitive edge!

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