Three things based on personal experience spring to mind.
- After being passed over more than once, anyone with ambition looks to move to another company. When they do, it’s a loss of skill and culture. It will take time to replace.
- Those passed over who stay often become cynical and disgruntled employees. New bosses (the external appointees) often wish these people would move elsewhere when they refuse to be won over.
- Your current team stop believing “motivational” statements like “Our staff are our greatest asset and we always seek to promote from within” when you plainly don’t.
It’s true that an external appointee can bring a whole new level of skill and expertise to the business.
They can also bring a fresh and better approach to doing things.
Both might be needed when you’re seeking to move a business to a higher level of operation or break into a new field.
Or to turn around a losing situation.
But, even then, things don’t always work out.
When owners and managers talk about “bringing our people along with us,” they should mean it.
Even for selfish reasons, if there is no other, to keep their workforce motivated and intact.
Succession planning is a critical part of management.
So, are you training your successor?
Are you enhancing your team’s skills?
If you are, you’re freeing yourself for higher and more productive work.
If not, well, you’re not.
The training and guides we publish boost skills in events, marketing and sales.
For example, this course will teach a member of your team how to organise a trade show stand from scratch.
One that attracts visitors and makes sales much more likely to happen.
The cost of the training is minimal.
On the other hand, the benefits could be huge.
Very best,
David O’Beirne