Succession: The Trap

You'll know someone like this. Brilliant at the job. Respected, trusted, the person everyone goes to when the sh*t hits the fan. Despite all of that, they get stuck at the 'Head of' level of your organisation.

They've been promoted before, but the leadership roles they really want keep going to other people, and nobody quite explains why.

Sound familiar? I bet you have someone in mind already.

Here's what I've watched happen hundreds of times. It isn't a lack of ability that holds these people back. It's the very thing that got them to 'Head of' in the first place.

Think about how they climbed. They were the best at the work. The sharpest, the most reliable, the one who always had the answer. Every step up rewarded that. So they drew the obvious conclusion. Being the person with the answers is how you get on.

Then they hit a level where that stops being true. Where the job is no longer about having the answers, it's about building a team that does. Yet nobody sat them down and told them the rules had changed, and nobody shows them how to lead.

So they carry on. They stay in the detail. They solve the things their people should be solving. They're in early and out late, because being needed is how they've always known they matter.

All of this reinforces the thing that's holding them back. It becomes a trap. The habits that won them the last promotion are the ones blocking the next.

I understand why organisations don't see it. From where you sit, this person looks like a star. They deliver. They never let you down. Why would you worry? So you promote them again into a bigger version of the same job, and six months later you're wondering why they've stalled.

Promoting someone and developing them are not the same thing. One tells them you rate them. The other actually equips them for what's next. Most businesses do a lot of the first and hardly any of the second, then look puzzled when their best people plateau.

So let me ask you. How many of your most talented people are stuck like this right now? Working harder than everyone, delivering more than everyone, but getting stuck and maybe even being seen as old school?

The cost isn't just to them. It's to the teams they're holding back and the succession gap opening up under them while everyone admires how hard they graft.

Next week, I'll get into what it actually takes to get someone out of the trap. It's less about skills than you'd think.