What Leaders Need to Get Right for 2027

So I thought this one was really interesting.

Companies often promote their strongest individual contributors into management.

And Bridget's piece makes the case that job performance alone doesn't tell you whether someone can lead other people or whether they even want to.

She also cited a study from Gallup that found that 65% of frontline supervisors were chosen based on individual performance or their tenure at the company, while only 30% were selected based on supervisory skills or experience.

Why is the great performer equals great manager assumption so persistent? You know, is it partly because promotion remains one of the clearest ways that companies have to reward their strongest employees or those who have been there the longest?

Maybe.

Can I make a more, maybe a potentially insulting, have an insulting response to that?

Absolutely.

It's the easiest path.

As a senior, as a higher up, when you're looking to fill a position where somebody just left, it's the easiest, most available option.

We're like, oh, Susan's the best performer on that team.

She can just move up.

And I don't think there's a lot of forethought into that and kind of how the dominoes fall beyond that.

So, you know, it's...

There is merit to it, and Bridget does a great job of getting into the story.

There is merit to it if several boxes are checked, right? Does this person actually want to be a manager? Have they had some opportunities to expand beyond their previous role in some sort of a project basis? Or did they get a chance to go around different parts of the company and learn more about how things work on a higher level? Those are big ifs that really need some forethought, whereas if employee X leaves and needs to be replaced, all that forethought kind of moves to the side and it's a very much an immediate, oh, we've got to finish, we've got to fill this position right now.

And let's reach for somebody that we think can just step right in because they're a good performer where they are.

It's kind of lazy.

It's kind of lazy, but you're right.

It does appear to be the easiest, most natural path, but it doesn't mean it's the right one.

And one thing, that you just briefly mentioned there is like asking people, do they really want to do this? Is this something that they see in their future at the company and in their own professional development? And from the company's perspective, it might look like a reward, but managing people really changes the job significantly.

And I love how you brought up the idea that that bridget talked about i think she called it cross training in the article kind of like taking that like sports athletic point of view on it but you know has this person had exposure to different areas of the company do they understand how things work outside of their department and so really um one thing she talked about the article that i thought was really useful is that if you're looking at people at your company that you you see in a a greater leadership role in the future make sure they have that experience, right? Like give them the opportunity to work with other teams.

And she gives some really good concrete examples of how you can do that.

And kind of, you know, along that thread, what other behaviors should executives and current managers be watching for before a management opening even exists?

Yeah, I think the one statistic that really caught my eye, and Bridget included several good ones, but one really talked about the engagement that a person has with a company.