Promoting Your Best Technician Can Create a New Problem

Question

One of the easiest mistakes to make as you grow is assuming your best technician should automatically become your next leader.

Sometimes that works.

Sometimes you just take your strongest producer out of the field and put them into a role they don’t actually want or aren’t ready for.

Being great at the work and being great at leading people are two different skill sets.

A lead tech suddenly has to give feedback, enforce standards, communicate problems upward, train newer employees, and sometimes have uncomfortable conversations with people they work beside every day.

I’ve become much more careful about separating performance from leadership potential.

Before moving someone up, I want to know whether they actually want responsibility for other people and whether they can hold a standard without turning every issue into drama. I ask during their 1-1s what do they want to do with their life/career and try to align our goals in the business to their goals (even though it's not always possible).

A promotion should solve a problem for the business, not create two new ones.

Have you ever promoted a great technician and realized afterward that leadership wasn’t actually the right fit for them?

judithvirag · Answer

Yes I have. Couple times. When I was about a 5 year old business I needed to hire an admin/supervisor.&nbsp; I heard "promote from within", which I did.&nbsp; It truly backfired.&nbsp; These team members were not ready and because I liked them I saw so much more in them than they themselves did.&nbsp; I ended up hiring a supervisor with these skills and experience and this worked out great.&nbsp;&nbsp;

anthonysalazar · Answer

That’s exactly the risk I was thinking about.

“Promote from within” sounds great until you realize you may be promoting based on loyalty or technical performance instead of actual leadership readiness.

Sometimes that works out, but sometimes it makes us overlook whether they actually want the responsibility or have the skills for it.

Hiring someone who already had the supervision experience probably saved you a lot of pain compared to trying to force someone into a role they weren’t ready for.

judithvirag · Answer

AnthonySalazar​ yes she has been with me 8 years :) still going and she is wonederful

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Promoting Your Best Technician Can Create a New Problem

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