Are “A” players always promotable?

We’ve all been there. We have an amazing mid manager. They really get results. We promote them. They crash and burn. We all feel bad about it. How did we go wrong?

I am a big fan of Topgrading. Brad Smart is the guru. There is another way that prevents this scenario. Here are his latest thoughts.

Almost every leader I’ve interviewed has promoted people who were high performers in their current job, but failed when promoted. Years ago a popular business book was The Peter Principle (by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull), a book that painfully documented how common it was to promote people to their level of incompetence. “She earned the promotion” made sense decades ago, and for years after The Peter Principle was released companies were more cautious — people were NOT necessarily given promotions because they “deserved the chance.”

But in my recent experience, too many companies have fallen back into the Peter Principle trap and need a reminder.

Read more

Related articles

• #1 Leadership Skill; 4 More; Cheating System; 3rd Edition Topgrading (verneharnish.typepad.com)
• Hiring Talent – Topgrading Webinar Friday June 22 – 2pm ET (verneharnish.typepad.com)
• VC Brad Feld: Startup hubs need to be led by entrepreneurs (geekwire.com)