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Performance Pointers Archives

The boss' dilemma: promote or not?

Interesting discussion with some fellow consultants I’m working with at the moment: does someone have to be really good at what they’re doing now, in their current role, in order to qualify for higher-level responsibilities? They thought ‘Yes’. And - not surprisingly - I found myself thinking ‘No.’ Perhaps it’s because I tend to look at this type of thing from a career coaching perspective, and it’s not the first time I’ve encountered this line of thinking, which I think misses the point. Maybe even is wrong.

Why? That’s the critical question any manager should ask herself. In fact, the manager should keep asking “why” at least three to five times:

1. Why is this individual under-performing in her current role?
A: She’s not interested in doing a good job; she doesn’t care.
2. Why doesn’t she care?
A: She’s sick and tired of trying to juggle all the minutiae and details of her work
3. But why is she sick and tired?
A: Because it’s never really been her strength, anyway
4. But why doesn’t she try harder?
A: Because she’ll never get to a level of perfection - and it’s demotivating her to have to keep trying, and never becoming successful
5. But why would I give her something else to do?
A: Because if you do - and if it’s something that is a natural strength - she might surprise you with her performance.

Of course, this conversation with yourself could go the other way - and lead to a decision to let someone go. What I’m suggesting is that it’s worth exploring whether someone’s current role matches their strengths well enough. And if it doesn’t, then it’s worthwhile to explore which role would - and retain the employee; perhaps even give her a promotion. No, it’s not rewarding someone for bad behaviour. It’s understanding that to get top performance out of people, you must find things for them to do successfully.

Success breeds success. Doing something well, and being praised for it, is the most powerful incentive there is to keep improving your performance, and getting more praise. Human beings are praise-junkies; we’ll do just about anything to get more of it.

Think about that, next time you’re contemplating someone’s under-performance.

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