How to stop best people from being worst managers

Oleg Vishnepolsky

48 percent of managerial promotions fail within the first 18 months – according to various studies, including Harvard Business Review.

Because there is often no graceful way to take back a promotion, managers continue in their capacity – causing good people to become unproductive or leave. Such failures are unreported and undocumented for various reasons.

The main and subtle reason for failures is the following.

When I moved to the UK, I found driving on the left unnatural. It is not the habit, it is the vision with the focus on the right side of the car rather than the left one.

I had the same feeling when I was first promoted to management.

It was no longer what I could do, but what my team could do.

Best employees step forward to fix the problems.

Best leaders step backward to let their team find problems and fix it.

That step backward feels so unnatural at first.

When you promote someone into management, you need to help them to learn that step backward.

Teach the new managers that their function is different.

The best employee is the rocket. The best leader is the rocket booster.

With that booster, people can reach unbelievable heights.

Courtesy: (Dailymail)