The Problem With Promoting High Performers

It’s exciting to help your direct reports reach the next level of their career, but don’t fail to plan for the side effects of promotions

“You’re doing great, almost TOO great. We can’t promote you because you’ll hurt our bottom line by not doing what you’re currently doing. You understand, right?” Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

The internal struggle is real. Someone on your team is exceeding expectations consistently and is ready for that next role in their career ladder, but promoting them could have a major impact on your team.

Change of responsibilities, and less time spent on what they were good at previously can be scary, but you must find a way to make it work. If your team discovers you’re scared to promote individuals because of the hypotheticals or your poor planning abilities, they’ll begin to leave and you’ll deal with these issues anyway.

Below I’ve outlined some problems that are generated when promoting high performers, along with actionable ways to prevent those problems from surfacing.

Problem: They leave a void

If you are unprepared, promoting a high performer can leave a serious void on your team. Especially in cases where an individual gets an internal promotion and ends up reducing their time spent on delivery, you may inadvertently cause a severe dip in productivity.