Never promote to a management role

Eli Lopian    Management for Geeks    

This post is to remind myself what to do what promoting first time managers, based on the final tip in the Myth and Realty Check Post.

Eli, Remember to Delay the Promotion

Here is why. When promoting a manager, I normally promote a high performance employees. These employees are excellent at doing their job well. They are talented, have a good time management, can work in a team. But they are most likely to have a wrong perception of management, this will lead to problems. The new manager will most likely still think that he is being reviewed on his personal performance instead of the teams performance

Its a catch 22 problem, the rookie manager can not get the new job because he needs to change his perception, but the perception cannot change until he jumps into the water.

My solution is instead of promoting, give that person a task that he can succeed only if he uses influence, a task that he cannot do by himself. For example to gather a group of people, that he has no authority on, and convince them to do a task together. A task that they will need to volunteer for. Explain that this task is about completing the task, but also about teaching him to use influence, a trait that is a requirement for a management role. Review his progress, help him out with interpersonal issues. Once he passes this task, he will find it easier to take on the managerial position.

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