Promoting Failure

Todd was exactly the kind of employee organizations look for when they want internal advancement. Three years on property. Reliable. Professional. Trusted.

Within his first year, he was training new hires. Not long after, he was stepping into a dual-rated Supervisor role to help manage situations on the floor. He handled difficult guest interactions well. His peers respected him. Leadership trusted him as a go-to frontline employee.

When a full-time Supervisor position opened, Todd was an obvious choice.

Six weeks later, the feedback started to shift.

His team called him inconsistent and unapproachable. He didn’t connect with them anymore. His manager couldn’t rely on him. He struggled working with other departments’ leadership.

Five months after his promotion, Todd left for a lower-paying job.

Nothing about Todd’s ability to do the job had changed.

The job changed—and no one prepared him for it.

The Promotion Trap

There are two primary approaches to hiring management: hire from the outside for someone with experience or promoting internally from recognized high performers on your team.

I’m a strong proponent of internal promotions. It shows growth opportunities to your frontline staff, reinforces mentorship across the team, and creates real ROI on your training investment.

The problem starts when performance and leadership are treated as the same skillset.

With that mindset, we assume a high performer can transition into leadership with minimal focus on development of “soft skills.” We train them on new systems – scheduling, timecards, reporting, administrative processes, etc. – and assume they’ll figure out how to lead people along the way.

That assumption is where failure begins.

The skills we focus on are often the ones that require the least development for someone already proven in the operation. At the same time, we skip the ones that matter most:

How to lead people.

How to shift relationships from peer to leader.

How to manage conflict.

How to work with and influence people who think and operate differently than them.

The Leadership Shock

For most new leaders, failure doesn’t happen all at once. It shows up in small moments:

• An employee they thought they had a good rapport with pushes back on direction.

• A conversation that should be simple turns uncomfortable.

• Two team members bring a conflict to you and expect a resolution, exposing something you have no idea how to handle.

• Another department challenges a decision you made.

These aren’t operational problems. They’re real, they’re standard. They’re leadership moments. And they come faster than most new leaders expect or are prepared to handle through traditional leadership training.

Yesterday they were a part of the team. Today, they’re responsible for it. The same people who used to be part of the venting or joking system are now looking to you for direction, to show accountability, and to create solutions.

That transition is rarely addressed in leadership onboarding.

The Team’s Perspective

This shift isn’t just felt by the new leader, it’s felt by the whole team.

Management wasn’t the only group that saw this person as a high performer and future leader, their peers did, too. And now they’re labeling what they see as the person failing.

The person that they trusted now feels distant.

The former confident decision-maker they relied on is now inconsistent and hesitant.

Conversations that used to be easy now feel different. They feel forced. Uncomfortable. 

One day they’re being coached – the next, they’re being corrected. Hesitation now hits the frontline. Not because they don’t care or aren’t capable. But because they don’t know how to work with this person anymore.

What We Fail to Teach

None of this is surprising – because the missing pieces are the exact skills most organizations never teach before promotion. Again, we teach systems, programs, and processes. Maybe some places will give a generic “this is our culture” presentation. But none of that translates into practical, usable skills when real leadership moments show up. The moments that actually define success in the role: 

• Handling pushback.

• Giving feedback – positive or constructive.

• Shifting peer relationships.

• Managing conflict between direct reports.

• Reading people.

• Working with and leading people different than you.

• Discussing your perspective with leaders of other departments.

These are not advanced leadership skills. These are the job.

The Right Steps

If we want different outcomes, we have to prepare people differently.

Leadership isn’t learned through systems or presentations. It’s built through repetition, feedback, and real conversations around real situations. That means creating opportunities for leaders to practice before the moment matters. Talk through situations they’re going to face. Ask what they would do – and why. Walk back through decisions after they happen and break down the thinking behind them.

Give them the language. Give them the perspective. Give them the chance to work through it while the stakes are still low. Because once they’re in the role, the stakes aren’t low anymore.

The goal isn’t to eliminate mistakes. It’s to make sure they’re not seeing these situations for the first time when they’re responsible for handling them.

We don't fail because we promote the wrong people; we fail because we don't prepare the right ones.