The Promotion Problem: Are We Promoting the Best Performer or the Best Leader?
A few years ago, I watched someone get promoted into a managerial role. Nobody questioned the decision. She was one of the strongest performers on the team. She consistently delivered, took ownership, solved problems quickly, and was someone the organization could always count on. So when the promotion came, everyone thought, “Of course. She deserves it.” And she did.
But a few months into the new role, something started to change. Her own work was still excellent, but her team wasn’t doing as well. People became hesitant to approach her. Small issues started taking longer to resolve, and some team members felt they were being managed rather than led. It wasn’t that she had suddenly become a bad manager. The problem was much simpler: being very good at your job and being very good at leading people are two different things.
This is something many organizations learn only after the promotion happens. As an individual contributor, you are largely responsible for your own results. You know what needs to be done, you get it done, and your performance is visible. But once you become a manager, the equation changes. Your job is no longer just to get things done. Your job is to help other people get things done, and that requires a completely different set of skills.
I remember someone telling me after their first promotion, “Earlier, if there was a problem, I would just solve it. Now I have to stop myself from solving everything.” That sentence stayed with me. It sounds simple, but it captures one of the biggest transitions from performer to leader. A new manager has to learn to delegate instead of taking over, give feedback without discouraging people, handle disagreements, work with different personalities, develop people who are struggling, and sometimes make decisions that won’t make everyone happy.
The biggest shift is perhaps this: your success is no longer measured only by what you can accomplish yourself. It is also measured by what you can help other people accomplish. A manager who personally delivers outstanding results but has a disengaged, dependent or underperforming team may not be creating the impact the organization expected from that role.
This is where I think organizations sometimes get promotions wrong. We see someone consistently exceeding targets and assume, “They will make a great manager.” Maybe they will. But performance should be the starting point of that conversation, not the entire conversation. Before promoting someone, we should also ask whether they can listen, give difficult feedback, handle conflict, give credit to others, stay calm when things don’t go their way, and develop someone who may not be as strong as they are.
There is another side to this conversation that we don’t talk about enough: not every high performer wants to become a manager. I have seen people accept managerial roles simply because they felt it was the natural next step in their career. They were excellent specialists, loved solving complex problems and enjoyed being experts. But suddenly, the next step in their career meant managing people. Saying no can feel uncomfortable because it can almost sound like, “I don’t want to grow.” But that isn’t necessarily true.
Growth doesn’t always have to mean managing people. Someone can become a stronger architect, consultant, analyst, designer, developer, HR professional or subject-matter expert without having a team reporting to them. Organizations need to recognize this. When we create only one definition of career growth, we can end up pushing great specialists into leadership roles they never really wanted. Sometimes, we lose a great individual contributor and gain a manager who is still trying to figure out whether management is for them.
For CXOs and business leaders, this is more than an HR conversation. Promotions are investments. When we promote someone, we aren’t simply rewarding their past performance; we are betting on their ability to create future impact. That means the question shouldn’t only be, “Who deserves the promotion?” It should also be, “Who is ready for what comes next?
And if someone has the potential but isn’t ready yet, perhaps the answer isn’t to wait indefinitely. Give them opportunities to mentor someone, lead a project, own something bigger, influence without authority, or handle a difficult conversation. Give them feedback and coaching. Sometimes, leadership needs to be practiced before it is given a title.
For employees looking towards their next promotion, there is a lesson here too. Don’t wait for the title to start behaving like a leader. If you want to lead people, start helping people. Share what you know. Give credit. Take responsibility when things go wrong. Listen when you disagree. Help someone who is struggling. Think beyond your own targets. These things may not always appear on a performance dashboard, but they are often the first signs that someone is ready for a bigger role.
The best performer and the best leader can absolutely be the same person. But they don’t have to be. Perhaps the better question isn’t, “Who is our best performer?” Maybe it is, “Who can make the people around them better?”
Because performance may earn the promotion. But leadership is what makes the promotion successful.
Author
Shenba Vignesh
