When your company is growing you have to add new layers of management. One common mistake is to only look outside the company. This is often promoted by investors who are worried that the early employees are too young and inexperienced. But if you only hire from the outside it can be demotivating for the people inside the company who may come to think that they cannot have a career here. That’s why I like to see a balanced approach that also includes a lot of internal promotions.
Internal promotions though are often poorly executed: People are given more responsibility without coaching on how to succeed in their new role. In my experience, this is the number one reason why internal promotions don’t work out. Despite being highly motivated the promoted team member simply doesn’t have the tools to do the new job.
When this happens you can get a double whammy: you wind up having lost time and you may even find yourself letting go of someone who was a great team member before they were promoted. To avoid this, I am a big fan of giving someone a trial period with an “Interim” title. This makes it clear that they have something to learn and may not be in this role long term.
The common objection to the “Interim” approach is that it means people won’t be perceived as having full authority. But generally if someone needs to appeal to their formal title for authority that’s likely to be a failure case of leadership. The big advantage of the “Interim” approach is that should they not find their footing in their new role it is much easier to retain them in the organization and set an example that it’s OK to try something and fail.
So when you are next adding a senior position, make sure to consider an internal promotion. And if you go that route really focus on giving them coaching and make it an “Interim” trial period.
