
Not Every Manager Should Be An Internal Hire
To lay the foundation of this post, we want to throw this out there—it’s really important for you to recognize the success of your people and reward them for their good work they have really sacrificed to produce. Today, we want to put our thoughts on the table about transferring your hard working people into manager roles. You’ll face a lot of employees who think that their hard work has earned them a role as a main manager. Sometimes this will definitely be the situation—they have earned it and they can hold their own and the team supports them as a leader. You are going to also have employees who are great workers, but you know that stepping into a manager role is not a right fit for them or your team. They just are not management material. How can you tell if your employee is ready for a promotion to manager?
- Do they support company goals? They are going to be the person carrying out the company vision and interpreting it for their team. Your managers should fully support the company motto and they should filter it through their goal approach and team strategy.
- How are their people skills? Their work skills may be off the charts amazing—but can they hold a conversation? Conflict happens daily in a manager position. They are setting goals, pushing your people in their skills, listening, motivating, and keeping the team on track. They will be dealing directly with extremely diverse personalities and approaches to work—handling with wisdom and discernment is 100% necessary for a successful team.
- Do they even want to manage? There has to be a passion for leadership. You will run across employees who really love working in their position and being a manager does not seem appealing to them. You can give your employees a test run with additional responsibilities to see if they could handle the job.
You won’t always find an internal hire to fill your position—and that’s okay. You will have a handful of employees who feel that they would make a great manager for your company. Let them interview and see where they are at with views on leadership and work management skills. You never want to push aside your internal workers—they keep the business booming, and maybe even interviewing could help them see whether they could do the job or not.
Finally, if you would like to learn how WorkCompass and our performance management software can help you decide if someone is ready for a promotion. Please get in touch today and request a demo.