Imagine these three scenarios: there is a sales executive who not only achieves the assigned target, but regularly beats it. An engineer solves problems that have everyone else at their wits’ end. And a production supervisor is such a master at his work that he knows the operation inside out.
Now, a managerial position opens in their departments. Who gets promoted? Most people will say what sounds perfectly rational – that the star performer will be promoted. And that is precisely what happens quite often. But do you realise that it could also be a grave mistake?
Many companies across the world unwittingly fall into this trap. They turn their star performers into managers. And many a time, things take a turn for the worse instead of improving.
The reason is simple. That sales executive in our scenario was fantastic at sales. But now, she has to teach others how to clinch a deal. Can the former sales executive also be a great coach? The engineer could easily solve an engineering problem. But after promotion, he has to resolve a conflict between two new engineers. Can he do that as well as he solves engineering problems? Not necessarily.
Management is all about enabling others to accomplish the desired results. But employees who excel at their work may not always be capable of helping others become proficient.
Indian management institutions do recognise the difficulty of this transition. The promotion of an employee to manager involves a shift in skill requirements, time applications, and work values. This is how a programme for first-time managers at IIM Indore describes it.
The newly promoted managers are expected to shift gears from delivering results through their own skills to getting the same results through other employees. This requires a completely different set of skills – decision-making, managing workplace emotions, conflict management, developing teams and coaching. But these may not be the skills on which star performers are promoted.
Perhaps there is a reason why companies keep doing this. A managerial position represents a step up the organisational hierarchy. It is what many employees aspire for. Greater responsibility, a higher position, increased salary, perhaps even a cabin – these signify progress. This creates a unique problem.
How do you reward an engineer, a salesperson, a researcher, or a technical specialist whose work is exceptional, but who does not possess management skills? The only meaningful route to promotion appears to be a managerial role, and that is what companies reward talented specialists with, even though they may not be suited for it.
Companies need to reflect on this approach and ask themselves these questions: Does promotion mean saddling a remarkable specialist with a responsibility they may not be good at? Can management be a medal for a previous job done well? Or should it be treated as a different profile requiring a separate skill set? How else can professionals who are masters at their work be rewarded without making them managers?
Reflecting on these questions could perhaps save many great employees from becoming bad managers. This, in turn, could prevent frustration and heartburn down the line.