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Whenever possible, promoting employees to management from within is an ideal approach.
It can provide three succession-planning benefits:
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- It can save a company time and money because advertising and recruiting applicants can be costly.
- Retention of employees, employee motivation and optimized morale.
- Employees are a known quantity as opposed to bringing in an outsider.
However, there are also dangers to promoting from within. All too common, a boss identifies a productive employee and promptly promotes the person to management.
But guess what? The person is a failure in supervising others and managing projects. Regular one-on-one coaching and training fails to generate the desired results.
It’s a classic case of the Peter Principle: Laurence J. Peter is credited with the proven theory that even terrific employees are promoted to their level of incompetence.
Traditionally, it happens a lot with sales employees. For them and other unsuccessful managers, their strengths aren’t equal to the tasks required by a new supervisorial role.
Management: Coach Your Employees to Better Performance
Take heart. You can avoid being victimized by the effects of the Peter Principle. Screening employees for management potential only requires some simple insights and skills.
In general, you need to look for attitude, appearance, ability and angle (does the employee understand other persons’ point-of-view or angle from which they’re coming?).
From the parameters of attitude, ability and angle in your interview process, look for three traits or qualities:
1. Self-awareness
You need to look for the persons’ ability stock of their strengths and weaknesses; in other words, a personal inventory. Ask them point-blank to assess their abilities, weaknesses and instincts.
Ask them about hypothetical situations and how they would respond to matters big and small.
Don’t forget to ask them to about their failures and the lessons they learned.
2. Detachment
You don’t want a fearful manager who micromanages workers. You want a manager who confidently assigns tasks and provides strategies for employees to accomplish goals.
A good manager explains concepts, principles and priorities, and informs employees about the mission of the organization.
7 Management Tips – Communication with Difficult Employees
Furthermore, failure to be detached leads to morale and self-esteem issues among employees.
3. Empathy
Last but not the least of considerations, you’ll need a new manager who shows empathy and listens to the concerns of employees.
In your interview with the prospective manager, ask the right questions in dealing with obstinate workers. Hypothetically, give the person a scenario about managing a worker with a negative personality. Ask how your candidate would manage the situation.
Here’s what you’d want to hear: The person would approach the employee confidently with a detached mindset seeking clarity, and ask non-threatening questions, such as: “Why aren’t you working on this project?” or “Why are you doing this?”
The manager would then be in a position to best deal with the employee’s intransigency and solve the issue.
Note: If the prospective manager gives a defensive answer, such as “Deal with it,” “That’s the way it is” or “Do it or else,” you’ve got the wrong answer.
With today’s employees, it’s best to not to approach each problem by speaking with finality. That should be the last resort.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are additional management tips:
Management: Are You Stressed over Unfilled Positions? — If you’re having difficulty in recruiting workers — you’re not alone — so you might have to put on a new set of glasses in how you view your recruiting process.
3 Best Steps in Management to Reach Leadership Status — Leadership can best be described as the art of inspiring people to work toward a common objective. Here are the first three steps to evolve from a manager to a leader.
Management – Improve Communication, Stop Rumor Mill — Gossiping and rumors hurt your staff morale and organizational performance. Such toxicity and negativity can also lead to expensive lawsuits. Here’s what you can do as a manager.
Dreaded Discussions You Must Have – 7 Management Tips — In most organizations, managers must inevitably have conversations with employees regarding their work. Here are seven crucial steps.
Management – 8 Steps to Solve Employee Incivility — Obviously, mutual respect are vital in cooperation and teamwork for performance. Clear management strategies are necessary if you have uncivil staff members.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
-Marcel Proust
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