Hello!

I’ve spent the a lot of Q1 in strategy sessions with fast-growing companies, and I’m seeing the same pattern everywhere:

Rockstar individual contributors promoted to management roles with:

• No training
• No support
• No chance of success

watts not working: Thinking that great doers automatically become great leaders. I just watched a brilliant engineer-turned-manager destroy team morale in three months. Not because he’s a bad person – because he was set up to fail.

watts really happening: Your middle managers are caught in an impossible position:

• Expected to translate executive vision they weren’t part of creating
• Tasked with motivating teams through change they don’t fully understand
• Responsible for outcomes without authority over resources
• Blamed when things go wrong, invisible when things go right

watts working: Companies that are getting this right are:

• Building management skills before the promotion, not after
• Creating “leadership sandboxes” where potential managers lead projects before teams
• Establishing peer support systems among Associate Directors
• Treating management as a completely different career track (because it is)

watts the real game changer: Stop treating middle management as a reward for good performance. Start treating it as the specialised discipline it actually is.

Here’s a quick test: Take your Associate Directors to lunch. Ask them this one question: “What training prepared you for managing people?”

Then watch their faces.

If the answer is “nothing,” your growth problem isn’t recruitment, technology, or market fit.

It’s that critical layer of leadership that’s valiantly trying to hold it all together without the tools to succeed.

Have a week of intentional leadership development!

Sel

.

P.S. Looking for more? Dive into the wattsnextpx website to discover more valuable content and blog updates.