“I’ve got an employee who has been doing a great job over the past couple of years and I’m considering promoting Joe to a manager position. Anything I need to consider?”
My HR Survival Tip
Congrats on having such a great employee! Now, take let’s take a deeper look at whether or not you’re making the right decision. Did you know that only one in 10 people have the “talent” to be a good manager?
Part of the problem is that doing a great job in their current position is not an indicator of whether or not they can actually manage others. In Gallup’s survey “State of the American Manager,” they list five areas for managers that demonstrate they have “talent:”
- Motivator
- Assertiveness
- Accountability
- Relationships
- Decision-making
Gallup defines “talent” as the natural capacity for excellence. While your employees can learn skills, develop knowledge and gain experience, they consider talent to be innate… basically, people are born with talent. What does this mean to you? Having this high talent level means those managers will be:
- More engaged, which results in them outperforming others on business outcomes;
- Better ambassadors for your company, which means they understand your brand, what sets your company apart, and can more successfully excite customers; and
- More likely to focus on a strengths-based approach to managing and developing their direct reports, which keeps employees more engaged.
If your great performer doesn’t exhibit leadership skills and an understanding of the things I’ve just mentioned, you might consider rewarding that employee with something other than a management position. Not everyone is capable of, or even wants to be, managing others.
Find out what Joe’s ambitions are and consider letting him lead a project first so you can get a better sense of his managerial abilities. Don’t just pop him into a manager position without doing what you can to ensure his success.
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