Holding Back On The Career Development Plan – Why NOT To Promote Your Best Employees

Believe it or not, promoting your top performing employees into management positions could be the worst thing you can do

By Anna Johnson

Let's cut to the chase: just because someone is fantastic at doing their job... doesn't mean they're equally as great at supervising or managing others to do that job.

After all, the skill set required for a specific profession - whether it's lawyering, building, marketing, auditing, selling, teaching or whatever - is entirely different from the skill set required to supervise or manage people.

Yet many organizations release a job promotion announcement on an almost daily basis and insist on promoting "doers" into management roles.

Such promotions typically come with better-sounding titles, more money, more perquisites, more prestige and... more responsibility.

And they involve doing less - perhaps none - of the "technical" work that the manager previously did, and more (or all) of the work of supervising or managing others.

It may seem logical - people who used to do the work themselves should best understand exactly what their staff need to do. And yes, there are managers who are just as good, if not better, at managing others as they are at performing the actual work. And there are those individuals who prefer to "manage" rather than "do" too.

But we can't assume that a every good "doer" will be a good manager!

This is not to say that a pyramid-like organizational structure - where the few manage the many - is inherently a bad thing. As a delegation or management structure it works fine for many companies.

It's just that the wrong people sometimes end up at the "top".

Which is virtually inevitable in environments where the only way to get more pay, prestige and other rewards is to become manager... regardless of whether someone has the talent or passion to manage people.

The result? An organization that's riddled with unhappy and ineffective managers... not to mention frustrated employees... that just isn't performing at its best.

Doesn't it make more sense for people to do the work they enjoy and are good at? To reward them for improving at that work... rather than only paying them more if they move into management positions... where they may actually generate less value for the organization?

Isn't a top salesman better off in the field selling... than floundering in the office, struggling to supervise and motivate his staff?

Doesn't a terrific teacher do more for her students, herself and the school by staying in the classroom... than spending her time dealing with paperwork and trying to supervise other teachers?

Fortunately, some organizations have seen the light. Such companies provide greater rewards to individuals who take on greater responsibilities and achieve exemplary results within their "technical" role.

Take, for example, investment banks. They are renown for paying traders and sales people much, much more than the people who manage them. They do this because, in their view, the traders and sales people generate much more value than the managers.

Of course, as a "manager's advocate" I would never suggest that managers shouldn't be compensated well, especially given the challenges of supervising and managing employees.

But to be as productive and profitable as possible, organizations should tie greater pay and rewards to greater responsibilities and performances, whatever the role. That way, they'll have people doing and being at their best.

So if you're responsible for "promoting" people, I urge you NOT to promote your best employees into management roles -- unless they have the passion, skills and talents to excel in management -- and instead, reward them for doing their "technical" job well.

Specifically, if they don't have the aptitude for management, consider whether you can enlarge, or give them more challenges in, their existing role?

Or, if they've performed exceptionally well, whether you can give them a bonus or some other special reward to recognize their efforts?

Of course, if you work for someone else, you may be limited in terms of what you can do... but if that's the case, and you're committed to staying with your current employer... it may be time to change things!