06/09/2026
A lot of HR leaders, and even C-suite, ask me why every time they promote their top performer, things tend to fall apart.
The answer is almost always the same. We promote the doer, but we rarely, if ever, train the leader.
Here's the math most organizations miss. When someone is great at their job, they're operating at 100% operations. They're doing the thing, and they're doing it well.
The moment you promote them, the role fundamentally changes. You take them from 100% operations and you transition them into 20% operations and 80% relations.
That's not a small adjustment. That's a completely different job, requiring a completely different skill set.
The things that made them effective in their old role are not the same things that will make them effective as a leader.
We see it most clearly in sales and engineering, but it shows up in every industry.
Promotion isn't development. It's a title change.
Real development is what equips someone to make that shift from doing the work to leading the people who do the work. Until we separate the two, we're going to keep losing our best people on both sides of that role.
What's one thing you wish your organization had taught you before your first promotion into leadership? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments 👇
