Don't leave your success to chance.
I’m calling this article “The big people gamble”.
Before I move on though – just to be clear - the post is not about overweight people placing bets or flittering away huge sums of money - although I do know a few of these 😊.
Instead, this post is about the massive gamble that many businesses and organisations take each year. Often, it’s a lot more frequent than that.
Here's what I'm talking about - It's a common scenario in business, especially for those that are growing quickly.
I want you to imagine you have an outstanding person who consistently does well and outperforms others. You know the one - they are the person that always goes the extra mile, they achieve well above their targets and smash their objectives. Nothing is too much bother for them. They are highly driven, motivated and enjoy what they do.
Let’s try and paint the picture a bit more.
To help, I want to use the example of a successful salesperson. Imagine the top salesperson. Someone who outperforms their figures month in month out. Before you know it, they’ve done so well, they’re promoted to Sales Manager.
Suddenly, they’re managing a team and the business success relies on them hitting a personal target, as well as members of their new team hitting their own targets too. Ultimate responsibility to hit the overall numbers sits with the new manager.
Sounds simple right?
Well, you’d think so - but here's what most businesses do.
They make a massive assumption. The company assumes their best salesperson will automatically become a great sales manager.
OK, so it’s likely that they will have some great attributes and useful ideas to bring to the team. But there’s a real danger with this scenario.
Here’s the DANGER WARNING – It’s that the new manager immediately goes into 'tell mode'.
Here’s what happens.
Very often (and I mean most of the time), inexperienced managers believe that it’s their job to provide the answers, solutions and ideas.
They believe that their people should look to them to be told exactly how they should be doing things. They were after all the best at what they did, and they genuinely believe that as the manager, it’s now their job to tell people how to be as great as they were.
They do it with the best of intentions.
They want to share their secret to success.
When this happens however, without even realising it, the new manager is disempowering their team and storing up all sorts of problems for the future.
Put simply, the company has left things to chance - It’s the 'Big People Gamble'.
They choose not to invest in the leadership skills of the new manager and just assume (or hope) things will turn out OK. Rarely is this the case.
So, here's how this story pans out.
Your top salesperson, who’s now the manager, does what they think is best. They focus on the things that got them the results when they were the top performing salesperson.
They layer in new processes and procedures, based upon how they used to do things.
They begin to micromanage and become obsessed with measuring activity.
They chase their team relentlessly for updates and interfere on the larger opportunities.
They manage, drive and control performance.
It may not seem so at first, but with time, things start to unravel. The manager becomes blinkered and completely loses sight of their people.
Before you know it, overall performance is on the slide. Sales targets aren’t met, and the overall company bottom line takes a hit.
And it gets worse.
Next year’s sales targets need to increase to close the hole that has appeared in the business plan. A snowball effect takes hold.
Team members complain of a lack of trust, communication, and motivation. Stress levels increase and performance worsens. The manager pushes harder and harder to try and turn things around. They work themselves and their team into the ground.
Before you know it, people feel completely controlled, employee engagement levels plummet and there’s a huge mess to sort out once the new manager is eventually moved on, or out of the business.
Remember this was your star person - You’ve done this!
So, let’s get to the real nitty gritty of this short story.
Experts in their field - promoted to manage teams - can end up destroying teams.
Regardless of if they are a salesperson, a billing advisor, a customer service agent, an accountant, whatever the role - just because someone is good at what they do, doesn’t mean they’ll be good at managing a team and leading people.
It’s a completely different skill set.
It’s vitally important not to assume that your star performer will become a great manager or leader. It’s however very possible that they can be – they just need to be supported. They need to be invested in.
So, why is it so many organisations and companies forget this important aspect of running their business? Indeed, do they forget?
Perhaps they're simply trying to save time and money, and are willing to take a chance that things will work out.
Absolutely promotion from within should be encouraged – 100%. But investment is needed to make sure the company benefits from developing and growing its workforce in this way.
When the investment isn't made, the approach can be disastrous. It can take up a huge amount of time and can cost many times over the investment that would otherwise be needed to the support the newly promoted manager.
I called this article the ‘Big people gamble’.
Gambling is a game of chance with odds attached.
In this situation there’s a simple way to improve your odds.
Make sure you invest in your people.
To find out more about Personal Leadership and how it can help your business, contact Gherkin Associates.
Find Gherkin on LinkedIn at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gherkin-associates-ltd
Helping People and Businesses Thrive
Glenn Smith – Gherkin Associates Ltd
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