The Hidden Cost of Promoting the Wrong Way

Julie Rich explores the hidden organisational cost of promoting strong technical performers into management without preparing them to lead people. Effective leadership requires different capabilities, including trust, communication, self-awareness and coaching and those skills need deliberate development.

“Promotion without the right support can create problems for both the new leader and the team.”

Gallup’s research consistently shows that managers have the single biggest impact on employee engagement, performance and psychological safety. Yet many organisations still promote people into management without equipping them with the leadership skills the role actually requires.

Gallup’s research continues to point to the same uncomfortable truth:

The manager is the single strongest influence on employee engagement, performance and psychological safety.

Yet many organisations still promote people for their technical expertise - and then provide very little support to help them develop the capabilities that actually make someone effective as a leader.

The ability to build trust, to communicate clearly and to coach rather than control.

Or what I prefer to call power skills.

Why Technical Expertise Doesn’t Automatically Translate into Leadership

The transition from technical expert to leader is one of the most underestimated shifts in working life.

Someone who was previously rewarded for their own performance is suddenly responsible for the performance of others.

Without the right support, the consequences begin to show up quickly.

Teams lose clarity, trust starts to erode and engagement drops.

And the risks increase.

Gallup’s research has repeatedly shown that poor management practices are strongly correlated with lower engagement and higher workplace risk.

Leadership Development Is Not a Luxury

Developing a manager’s self-awareness, empathy and coaching capability isn’t a “nice to have”.

It’s one of the most practical ways organisations protect:

• the wellbeing of their people

• the performance of their teams

• the long-term health of the business.

Put simply, leadership capability acts as a form of organisational insurance.

A Question Worth Asking

Towards the end of the year, most leaders are understandably hanging on by their fingernails.

But before everyone disappears for a well-earned break, it’s worth asking one simple question:

What support will your managers need to succeed in the coming 12 months?

Because hoping things will improve rarely works.

(As Kath & Kim would say — crossing your fingers and toes is not a strategy.)

Key takeaways

• Technical expertise alone does not prepare someone to lead and develop other people.

• Poorly supported managers can affect team clarity, trust, engagement and performance.

• Leadership development should build practical “power skills” such as communication, empathy, self-awareness and coaching.

• Organisations should actively prepare managers for leadership rather than assuming they will learn it on the job.