Promoting High Performers: The Hidden Risks and Strategies for Success

Show Notes: Promoting High Performers: The Hidden Risks and Strategies for Success

Episode Summary:
Promoting top performers into leadership roles may seem like the natural next step, but what happens when they struggle—or worse, when they never wanted to lead in the first place? In this episode, we explore why great individual contributors don’t always make great leaders, how leadership requires an entirely different skill set, and what organizations can do to better prepare their people for leadership before handing them the title.

Drawing from a personal leadership mistake early in my career, I share how I promoted an exceptional performer into a leadership role—only to realize too late that I had set them up for failure. We’ll also discuss the Michael Jordan principle—why the greatest players aren’t always the best coaches—and how leaders can ensure they’re making the right decisions when it comes to promotions.

If you’re a leader responsible for hiring or promoting team members, this episode will give you practical strategies to assess readiness, develop future leaders, and create career growth paths that don’t force people into roles they don’t want.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why high performance in a role doesn’t automatically translate to leadership success
• How to identify whether someone wants to lead before promoting them
• Actionable ways to develop leaders before they step into leadership positions
• The difference between a Leadership Track and a Mastery Track and why every company should have both
• How to avoid treating leadership as a reward instead of a responsibility

Key Takeaways:

• Ask before you promote: Ensure your top performers actually want to lead and understand the challenges of leadership.
• Prepare leaders early: Use mentoring, shadowing, and leadership opportunities before promoting someone.
• Offer alternative career paths: Not everyone wants to manage people—some thrive in roles where they continue growing as individual contributors.

Resources & Next Steps:

• Let’s connect on LinkedIn: Colby's LinkedIn
• If you found value in this episode, subscribe and share it with another leader who could benefit.
• Looking for a leadership speaker or training for your organization? Contact Colby Here

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• Colby's LinkedIn Profile
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Things Leaders Do, the podcast that
uncovers the secrets of becomingan extraordinary leader.
If you're a leader who'sconstantly seeking growth,
inspiration and tangible ways tolevel up your leadership, then
you've come to the right place.
Remember, the world needsexceptional leaders, and that
leader is you Now.
Here's your host, colby Morris.

(00:23):
Is you Now?
Here's your host, colby.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Morris.
I was sitting across from himone afternoon and I remember he
just looked at me and said Colby, I don't think I want to do

(00:46):
this.
That's when it hit me.
I had made a huge mistake.
Just two months earlier I'dpromoted Jake, my highest
performer.
He hit literally every target.
He outworked everyone, solvedevery problem that came his way.
Naturally, when a leadershipposition opened up, I didn't
even hesitate.
Jake was my guy.
I promoted him immediately.

(01:07):
But now the team was in chaos.
Deadlines were slipping,performance was down, morale
worse, and Jake, he was drowning.
The pressure of leadership hadturned his dream job into
something he didn't even wantanymore.

(01:32):
Too often we think leadership isthe natural next step for our
best performers.
It makes sense on paper, right?
I mean, if someone is theMichael Jordan of their role,
they should be the next coach.
Right Wrong, Because greatplayers don't always make great
coaches.
Michael Jordan was the greatestbasketball player of all time,

(01:58):
but you don't see him coachingin the NBA.
Why?
Because playing the game at ahigh level and leading others to
do the same are two completelydifferent skill sets.
And here's what I've learnedthe hard way Just because
someone is great at what they dodoesn't mean they want or are

(02:19):
prepared to lead others to do it.
There's three big reasons whythis happens.
Number one they were neverprepared for leadership.
Leading leadership requires newskills coaching, delegation,

(02:40):
accountability.
But if someone has only beentrained to perform and not to
lead, they step into a roleunprepared and usually
unsupported.
Think about it.
Did you train them on how tohave tough conversations, how to
manage conflict, how to leadpeers who were once their equals

(03:05):
, or did you just assume they'dfigure it out?
Number two they never wanted tobe leaders in the first place.
Some people love being great atwhat they do and that's enough
for them.
They don't want meetings,conflict resolution or

(03:26):
responsibility for an entireteam's success.
When we promote someone becausewe think it's what's best for
them, without asking them ifthat's what they actually want,
we set them up for failure.
Them up for failure.

(03:51):
Number three we assumeleadership is a reward and not a
responsibility.
We often treat promotions likeprizes hey, you've worked really
hard, here's your next step.
But leadership isn't a reward.
It's a completely differentrole.
If we promote someone thinkingwe're doing them a favor, we
missed the point.
Leadership isn't about moremoney or a better title.

(04:15):
It's about serving others, andnot everyone wants to serve in
that way.
So how do you fix it?
How do we put this together sothat it makes sense?
Okay, these are your actionpoints.
Number one ask before youpromote, Before assuming that

(04:48):
your top performer is your nextleader, sit down and have a real
conversation.
Ask them do you see yourselfleading one day?
Does anything excite you aboutleadership or what concerns you?
If their answers are hesitant,they're probably not ready.
A great exercise is to let themshadow a leader for a week.
Let them sit in on those toughconversations, decision-making

(05:12):
meetings or the day-to-dayreality of leadership.
Often, this alone will revealwhether they truly want that
role.
Number two develop leadersbefore you need them.
Don't wait for a leadershiprole to open up.

(05:33):
You have to start training yourhigh performers now.
Now, yes, I did say highperformers, because I'm not
looking for my low performers tobe leaders.
That's just a non-starter.
Give them mentoringopportunities.
Let them lead like a smallproject or expose them to some

(05:56):
leadership challenges beforethey're thrown into the deep end
.
One simple way to do this is byassigning them a junior team
member, maybe even a new hire tocoach.
If they enjoy that mentoring,they might be leadership
material.
If they avoid it or theystruggle, that's a sign they may

(06:19):
not want to lead.
And then, number three createtwo career paths leadership and
mastery.
I love this.
This is one of those things nota lot of organizations do and
not a lot of leaders do.
Again, not every great playerwants to coach, and that's okay.

(06:40):
But instead of forcingleadership as the only way to
grow, create two paths.
The first, the leadership track, For those who want to manage
people and develop teams.
They want to become betterleaders, they want to serve
people.
They go into the leadershiptrack.
And then there's the masterytrack for those who want to grow

(07:01):
in their expertise and theywant to impact as individual
contributors, but they don'treally want to serve others.
They don't really want to havethe other or additional
responsibilities, they just wantto be really good at what they
do.
A great example of this is inthe tech industry, where

(07:25):
software engineers can becomeeither engineering managers or
principal engineers.
The first leads people, thesecond leads through expertise.
This allows top performers toadvance without being forced
into leadership roles that theyreally just don't want.

(07:49):
If you're a leader, your jobisn't just to fill positions.
It's to place people wherethey'll thrive.
Leadership should be a calling,not an obligation.
So before you promote yourMichael Jordan, you have to ask
yourself what's the point?
Are they ready, Are theywilling?

(08:10):
Are they meant to lead?
If not, just man, just let themingrate at what they do,
Because sometimes the best wayto lead is to know when not to
promote.
And that's tough for a lot ofus, because we depend on our
high performers and we justnaturally assume that those are

(08:33):
the next set of leaders.
I know I'm kind of repeatingmyself, but I can't stress this
enough that it's one of thosethings that leaders always do
they promote people withoutpreparing them, without even
asking them if it's what theywant to do.
You can't force your promotionor what you think that person

(08:55):
should be upon them.
You're not them.
So just because you think theyshould promote doesn't mean that
they want that too, and you'vegot to take that into
consideration.
So, yes, I did skip up mynormal routine today.
For those of you who are new, myname is colby morris, I'm the

(09:17):
host of the tld podcast andthose of you who are coming back
, welcome back.
Leaders.
I appreciate everything thatyou do.
I appreciate you listening.
This is my goal.
It's to help you be a betterleader faster.
I want to help you not make thesame mistakes I did as a leader

(09:40):
when I was new and I've ledliterally every line of
leadership you can think of.
I've been that new manager,I've been that middle manager
and I've been an executive, andit's one of those things that if
I can just help you skip thatlearning phase where you don't
make the same stupid mistakes.
I do like promoting Jake beforehe needed to be promoted, then

(10:05):
I've done my job.
I want to help you skip thosestupid learning lessons that we
don't always have to learn thehard way.
So again, I appreciate youlistening.
If there's any way I can helpyou, I'd love to connect with
you on LinkedIn.
My LinkedIn is in the shownotes as well as my email and if

(10:30):
there's a way I can help youwith keynote speaking or
training your managers or justany way that I can do that,
please let me know.
Reach out to me, I'd love tohelp.
So go out there, lead well.
And again, remember, sometimesthe best way to lead is to know

(10:53):
when not to promote.
And you know why?
Because those are the thingsthat leaders do.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do.
If you're looking for more tipson how to be a better leader,
be sure to subscribe to thepodcast and listen to next
week's episode.
Until next time, keep workingon being a better leader by
doing the things that leaders do.