Promoting an employee from within an organization can save time, money and be a great morale booster. However, there can also be a down side as well. Entitled employees can be difficult to work with at promotion time.
How many times (in your opinion, of course) have you witnessed or had to work with someone promoted to a position of authority that truly wasn’t qualified? Time and time again manager/supervisor advancements are given to the wrong employees. We’ve all seen it happen.
If you are in a position to promote within, here are some obvious reasons and personality types you may want to steer away from.
When Entitled Employees Don’t Get That Promotion, Here’s What They’re Thinking . . .
1. “But I Have Seniority!”
Longevity with the company doesn’t automatically equip an employee with leadership skills, clarity and direction. This employee may be the “go to” person amongst their peers, but not necessarily a candidate for promotion.
An advancement based solely on seniority may create problems. It won’t take long for employees to build animosity toward their new leader, especially if it was “one of their own” they have to report to.
2. The Teacher’s Pet
Mighty sad, but this still exists. This is usually a high maintenance employee looking for repeated acknowledgment and attention. Often, this employee has a self esteem problem and doesn’t feel worthy of their work efforts or track record, therefore the need to continually flatter the boss.
It’s amazing to me how one can be blind to this tactic when it is so obvious to everyone else. Respect from the troops is just not there. Really, who wants to report to this person?
3. The Hard Worker
Although she knows every detail about the job and completely dependable, the leadership, motivation and delegation quality is just not there and if promoted to a supervisory position, will feel totally out of her element and begin to struggle. Promoting this person to a supervisory position could send her packing to another job before long. Instead, reward this employee for a job well done!
4. “I Don’t Have an Ego!”
Of course he does, that’s why he will accept a promotion without being qualified! Ego’s can drive an employee to accept a leadership role they have no business accepting. The ego-centric often keeps his staff in a state of psychological emergency because he thinks employees must be managed by beating on his chest. Whoa . . . problems here!
5. “I know I Can Do This!”
There are times the promoted employee whole-heartedly accepts the position knowing full well, he/she is not a leader or possesses any managerial skills. The assumption the employee uses to reinforce the promotion (in their mind) is that the skill set is either already there and just not tapped into, or the skill set will magically appear because after all, someone sees something in him/her.
6. “You’ll Train Me to Be a Good Manager, Right?”
Another sad situation is that the employee knows that she is not leadership material but accepts the position because the company said they would invest in training. I don’t think this works well either. Here’s my opinion again. You are either a leader or you’re not. It’s a personality thing. You can be trained to sharpen up your already acquired skill set, but this quality has to come from within, which by the way, starts out at a very early age.
Let’s Hear it for Those in the Trenches!
The right equation for any company is a harmonious work environment with high productivity. Employees are the life blood of every company, so without their efforts there are no customers. Think about implementing an employee recognition program. When employees fit their job position well; they are team players, productive contributors to the bottom line and happy! This equates to exceptionally satisfied loyal customers, referrals and repeat business!
Bottom Line: If you want to promote from within your department or organization, get in the trenches yourself and do some serious job shadowing. You’ll be amazed at what you find out. Who knows, you just might find a more qualified candidate you hadn’t considered.