Okay, I admit that once again I’m having a little fun here, coming up with a deliberately provocative way to present an idea. But this truly is an important concept for managers: you should never give anyone a promotion. Hopefully this dramatic way of phrasing the idea will make it memorable for you.
Hint: the key word here is "give."
Let’s take a step back and think about what a promotion means. There are two desirable things that come with a promotion. The first is money. A promotion usually includes a raise. In fact, in some companies a promotion is the only way to get a substantial raise. More money always has high value and is a concrete, quantifiable reward.
The second desirable thing that comes with a promotion is a set of rewards that are somewhat less tangible than money but are nevertheless very valuable. They include power, status, pride, recognition, opportunity, and a sense of progress and achievement. Let’s review these a little further:
- Power. An employee promoted into a supervisory position is being granted the authority to tell other human beings what to do and how to do it, and also to judge the value of their work and the appropriateness of their behavior. That's no small thing!
- Status. In our culture, for better or for worse, our self-identity is tied strongly to our work. A more prestigious title confers elevated status.
- Pride. There are few things in life more fulfilling than the sense of pride that comes from working hard to achieve a goal and then achieving it.
- Recognition. When you promote an employee you're giving that employee recognition for all the achievements and skills that earned the promotion. Receiving recognition is very rewarding.
- Opportunity. For an individual who wants to achieve great things, a promotion provides an increased opportunity to create, build, nurture, encourage, challenge, learn, and discover.
- A sense of progress and achievement. Most people want to feel that their lives aren't stuck but rather are growing and improving. Earning a promotion is one great way to feel that you're getting somewhere.
When you think about it, a promotion is really a big deal!
So then the question for you as a manager is: are you going to give all that money and emotional fulfillment away for nothing? Are you really just going to hand over all that financial and emotional booty as a gift and gain no managerial advantage from it?
I hope not, because that would be a terrible waste of a rare opportunity to exert a positive influence on an employee’s future success. The only other opportunity this good is when you're hiring a new employee.
Recall that there are three critical issues in hiring, firing, and promoting: who, when, and how. We're talking here about the “how” of promoting. Even if you promote the right person at the right time, if you just give the promotion to the employee you'll be missing a wonderful opportunity to help that employee succeed in her new position. It’s in your interest as a manager (and also as a human being who cares about your employees) to use all the leverage at your disposal to give the newest member of your leadership team the maximum opportunity to succeed.
That’s why you never give a promotion, you always offer a promotion. And what you offer is a package deal. The goodies we discussed above are part of that package. In my next post we’ll talk about the rest of the package and then we’ll go into the nuts and bolts of how to make the offer.
PS: Trust me, the difference between giving and offering is not a semantic trifle. It’s huge. Stick around and see for yourself!
Here are part two and part three of this series.
Comments