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ATD Blog

Your Organization’s Biggest Talent Mistake—And How to Avoid It

Wednesday, August 6, 2014
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In my new book Aha Moments in Talent Management, I list 13 fundamental talent principles. Yesterday someone asked me what the single most important one is. Without hesitation, I answered, “Number 4: The job of manager requires specific skills and abilities. Promotion should be based on the ability to do the next job, not performance in the current job. Good performance should be rewarded appropriately, but promotion should not be a reward for past performance.”

Why is this one the most important talent principle? Because it’s the most common mistake organizations make. Every week I meet people who complain that their organization’s managers are not doing a good job. When I probe for reasons, it’s always the same—the organization promotes top performers into management roles.

I used to think this was a mistake, but now I realize I was wrong; it is two mistakes. The first is creating a manager out of someone who lacks the skills to be a manager. The second is that you are taking your top performer and asking him to stop doing the job at which he excelled.

This mistake is so prevalent because we want to reward our top performers. And we figure the best way to reward people is to promote them. This is a 20th century mindset that was wrong then, and it’s even more wrong now. The best way to reward our top performers is to compensate them appropriately, give them challenging work, and create a work environment in which they will thrive.

Look at it this way: Would you ever hire an engineer who had no training, experience, or skills in engineering? Would you ever hire a nurse who had no training, experience, or skills in nursing? Would you ever hire an accountant who had no training, experience, or skills in accounting? Of course not. Would you ever hire a manager who had no training, experience, or skills in management? We do it all the time.

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So if we don’t promote the top performers, then whom should we promote? I’m astounded at how often people are stumped by this question. Just as we do for our engineers, nurses, and accountants, we should hire people to be managers who have the training, experience, skills (and desire!) to be a manager. Just because someone is good at engineering, nursing, or accounting doesn’t mean she’ll be good at being a manager.

I promised in the title that I would also give you a prescription for how to avoid this pitfall. Here goes: Stop doing it.

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I realize this sounds obvious and that in some organizations it might not be so easy. But imagine if your hiring managers were consistently hiring engineers who had no skills in engineering. Wouldn’t your organization find a way to stop that practice immediately?

I believe the single greatest source of diminished productivity is ineffective managers and the greatest source of ineffective managers is our desire to promote top performers. If we could somehow find a way to make managers out of people who possess the skills and competencies to be effective managers (while finding a way to appropriately reward our top performers), we would instantly increase productivity, engagement, and retention.

Learn additional talent management principles in Mark’s just-released ATD Press book, Aha Moments in Talent Management.

About the Author

Mark Allen is an educator, speaker, consultant, and author, specializing in talent management and corporate universities. Mark is a faculty member of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, a senior associate with the Kiely Group, a senior faculty member of the Human Capital Institute, and regularly teaches for Vatel University and the American Management Association.

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