Operating Principle

2–4 min read

The Best Performer Is Often the Worst Promotion

The Best Performer Is Often the Worst Promotion

The Best Performer Is Often the Worst Promotion

Promoting your top individual contributor can cost you your best worker and hand you a poor manager.

Promoting your top individual contributor can cost you your best worker and hand you a poor manager.

Promoting your top individual contributor can cost you your best worker and hand you a poor manager.

Individual excellence and managerial skill are only weakly correlated. Promotion can remove a strong producer and install someone whose skills may not transfer.

Individual excellence and managerial skill are only weakly correlated. Promotion can remove a strong producer and install someone whose skills may not transfer.

Individual excellence and managerial skill are only weakly correlated. Promotion can remove a strong producer and install someone whose skills may not transfer.

Individual excellence and managerial skill are only weakly correlated. Promotion can remove a strong producer and install someone whose skills may not transfer.

Operating Question

What would change if this leadership pattern were treated as an operating design question rather than a personality trait?

What would change if this leadership pattern were treated as an operating design question rather than a personality trait?

What would change if this leadership pattern were treated as an operating design question rather than a personality trait?

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Why It Matters

A separate senior individual-contributor track protects both kinds of talent instead of forcing everyone through one narrow door.

Supporting Evidence

Laurence Peter, “The Peter Principle”. Research on sales-to-management transitions.

Research Notes

Use this insight as an operating heuristic: consider context, consequences, and the limits of the underlying evidence.

Practical Actions

Promoting your top individual contributor can cost you your best worker and hand you a poor manager. A separate senior individual-contributor track protects both kinds of talent instead of forcing everyone through one narrow door.