Unlocking the Potential of Your Top Performers Without Promoting Them to Management

Key Takeaways

Promoting top performers to management roles without assessing their interest or skillset can lead to significant setbacks.

Structuring regular check-ins and feedback processes can preemptively address team members' needs and career aspirations.

Finding creative ways to reward and motivate top performers, such as providing assistants or involving them in leadership decisions, can help retain talent without transitioning them to unsuitable roles.

The Pitfall of Promoting Top Performers

As a leader or founder, it's tempting to think that your top performers can solve broader company challenges if promoted to management. However, this assumption can lead to unexpected pitfalls. As Alane noted, "We take that top performer and we think we're doing them a favor by promoting them to manager, but we're taking, you know, creators... and we tell them: you're amazing at being creatives, but instead we want you to manage people and processes?"

When creators—whether they be salespeople, software developers, or solutions architects—are thrust into managerial roles, they often struggle. Micah shared their experience, stating, "At first glance, we would promote people and then the people that we promoted would just falter and fail and lose attention to detail."

Why does this happen?

A creator draws satisfaction from their craft—whether it's closing sales, writing impeccable code, or designing cutting-edge solutions. Shifting them into a role focused on people management, a distinctly different skill set, can demotivate and disrupt their performance. Promoting without proper assessment and support can lead to diminished morale, decrease in productivity, and even attrition.

The Importance of Process and People Management Skills

When transitioning someone into a managerial role, it's crucial to recognize that being a great manager requires a unique set of skills. These aren't necessarily aligned with being a top performer in a technical role. Alane observed, "You don't necessarily have to be skilled at the position to be a great manager." Instead, "you need to have somebody that is good at managing, good at people," and as Micah elaborated, "good at processes."

Managing a team goes beyond just understanding their work; it involves optimizing workflow, reducing complexity, and enhancing overall efficiency. "They need to be able to look at what the team is doing and say, how do we make it better?" Micah explained. Good managers facilitate an environment where top performers can continue to excel without needing to control every aspect themselves.

Implementing Structured Feedback and Check-Ins

A vital approach to prevent the wrong promotions and discern the right path for team members involves implementing structured feedback mechanisms. Regular check-ins not only clarify expectations but also provide a platform for continuous dialogue about personal and professional growth. "Structuring all of this in our project management system, where it's automated, you're not having to think about it," helps streamline the process, says Alane.

These regular interactions help preclude surprise meetings that could induce unnecessary stress. Alane recalled, "The worst thing you want is to feel abrupt, like, oh, my God, I've got this meeting today at 01:00 and I haven't thought about this." Properly scheduled check-ins ensure both managers and employees can prepare, reflect, and provide thoughtful input.

Understanding and Rewarding Top Performers Beyond Promotions

One way to keep top performers motivated without promoting them to unsuitable management roles is to offer alternative forms of growth and recognition. "For a software developer, Micah, you could probably talk to this better than me with your background, you know, you don't have to give them the small, tedious tasks that they don't like doing," Alane suggested. Instead, identify what excites them and how they can add the most value.

Creative rewards can range from giving top performers assistants to help with mundane tasks to involving them in higher-level strategic decisions. This approach acknowledges their contribution while still safeguarding their productivity and job satisfaction.

Micah further illustrated the importance of aligning roles with individual motivations: "Salespeople are a slightly different breed with this... when you get into developers and engineers... money is not the leading aspect that they're going for." For many top performers, the satisfaction of their work and the autonomy to innovate are more significant than financial incentives.

Reflecting on these insights, it's clear that to maintain and harness top performers' potential, leaders must understand their team's diverse motivations and career aspirations. Relying solely on traditional promotional pathways can do more harm than good if not aligned with personal interests and strengths. Regular check-ins, creative reward systems, and recognizing individual contributions are essential strategies to foster a thriving, motivated team without forced, and often detrimental, upward mobility. By balancing these elements, you can unlock your organization's true potential and ensure sustained growth and engagement.