I am perpetually amazed how many businesses make the mistake of promoting people who are good at their job.

I’ll cross reference the Peter Principle here if you want a slightly different take on the issue.

It seems that somehow we’ve run out of ways to tell our employees that they’re kicking ass and we really appreciate it. We toss them an assistant management title and and force them to do busywork instead of the stuff they’re so good at. What kind of recognition is that?

Promoting people is the fastest way to get them doing something they’re not cut out for. Don’t promote because someone is doing a good job, or because they’re been with you for a long time.

When to Promote

They’re Already Doing It

This is a no-brainer. If you have a team member who is already coordinating work, helping people, doing ad-hoc training, taking responsibility, then you’re got someone who’s not at the right level in your organization. But, you did already recognize this potential in your employee, didn’t you?

You’ve Prepared Them

An employee shouldn’t be put into leadership cold. Once you’ve recognized the potential and cultivated those skills and given the employee the opportunity to grow, let her go. This is a little harder than the first situation; they’ll need more active development from you. But then, that’s your job, isn’t it?

They’re a Better Coach Than Pitcher

Sorry to use a sports metaphor, but in a small group you probably have a “generalist” who, as the team grows, will be replaced with several specialists. In many businesses, this is the natural order of things. And a generalist is typically a much better leader and decision maker than a specialist.

They’ll be Better at Your Job Than You Are

This is the hardest to admit. But if you’re a leader, you’ll do it.

What are the alternatives?

Stay Flat

The Chicken/Egg dilemma of promotion within a business is that if you have “middle management” positions, you’ll fill them. But if you feel compelled to promote people, you’ll also create positions you don’t have. Both are mistakes. Mandate the maximum depth of your organization and do not violate it.

Just Pay Them More

The best reason to promote someone is because you want to recognize the awesome work they’re doing. But if you promote an Engineer to a leadership position, you may be promoting that Engineer right out of a core skillset. If your Superstar isn’t a leader, don’t force it. More money is always welcome recognition.

Perks

Perks are the most underutilized tools in a manager’s tool chest. In most cases perks are more meaningful and cost effective than any other solution. Vehicle allowances, a (nice) company laptop, more vacation days, and so on.

The Most Important Thing?

Be Genuine

If your organization is bloated and inertial none of this will work for you; everyone knows that the plaques and certificates you issue are not heartfelt. If your culture does not value people, you’re already losing this battle. Which means you’re also losing your best people.

It has been a long time since I posted, and not without reason. I am changing my editorial tack with this site, and that change is reflected in the new layout. If you’re using a feed reader, click through.

As you can see, things are simpler and I removed a lot of crap from the site. And I also turned off comments.

New Direction

I had been struggling to post new content because I was trying to write about topics for which I had no definitive answers and publishing articles–even on a personal blog–with no conclusion bothered me. I was liberated from this self-imposed editorial tyranny when I realized that this was not in keeping with the intellectual curiosity that was driving me to blog

Like every human, I believe I am right nearly all the time and have made my mind up about a good many things. However, there are many issues so complicated, deep, and mysterious that I can never hope to fully understand. Demanding that I have answers before blogging means I could never write a word about them.

So I am giving myself permission to explore these topics here in the same way I do in my private thoughts: questioning. You will increasingly read here articles that are inconclusive, frustrated, confused and confusing; rather than having conclusions for everything I write, I will have mostly questions.

New Tumblr

I signed up for a Tumblog Tumbleblog Tumbr. The thinking here is that short (and funny, sarcastic, mean) thoughts will go on twitter, fuller thoughts will go on Tumblr and longer thoughts will go here. If you want to follow everything I think that is fit to post, follow all three. If you just want to laugh, follow me on twitter.

New Commentlessness

I first enabled comments on my blog because I figured I had to and certainly, since I had, legions of readers would leave pithy comments on my blog. This didn’t work out, and while wondering what to do about it, I heard Merlin Mann say that whether you have comments or not, you need to know why. Which I knew deep down I but didn’t have the cojones to step up to the plate. Why did I turn off comments right when I’m going to start writing articles that are mostly questions? And tackling more difficult topics in more detail? Wouldn’t people be more apt to comment?

Who cares? Seriously.

I do hope that people read what I write here, and I do value ideas and discussion, but posting a paragraph on a webpage is pretty meaningless when you think about it.

If the topics I choose, or what I write about them is interesting, compelling or thought-provoking, then I don’t want you to fill out a web form. I want you to get together with friends, open some Gin, or Wine, or Beer, or Water, and talk about the things that captured your attention. Comments don’t change anything. People do.