Turning Thoroughbreds into Mules

Companies practice this insanity all the time. Why are they so resistant to change from something they know doesn’t work?

Is it that they are that stupid or that they just don’t know how to be innovative enough to stop it?

You have an employee who is your top performer, You shower this person with money and a fast track up the ladder. You push this person right to very top they are your pride and joy!

What a performer what a steed what a thoroughbred what a winner!

Then tell me why you case of stupidity and think they will stay a top performer and guide others to be a top performers when you have not groomed them for the position into which you have cast them.

Why is it that you do not offer nor encourage such top performers and type of leadership nor management training on their flight up the ladder.

Most think it is overhead and wasted monies they rely on the osmosis principle. We cut the training budget as we do not believe in enriching the lives of the people that work for us and if provide training they will jump ship. Now most who make that statement are too ignorant to see that they jump ship is due to poor management but that is another blog entirely.

The osmosis principle is thinking that they learned management skills on the way up the ladder. However, if the y had a poor manager, which is normally the case, they only learned poor management skills if any at all. Remember you were so busy patting them on the back and giving accolades to teach them anything.

Marcus Buckingham, in his book First Break All the Rules, gave a great example of this. The story is of a top selling salesperson who made it to the top of the sales ladder. The company had no other way to reward him so the promoted him. The person was the worst manager the department ever had. They had zero people skills when it came to leadership. Half the sales staff jumped ship and they had no recourse but to fire him.

Wait!

So their reward was to be placed into a position to be fired? What kind of rewards is that?

Yet this practice continues still today companies take their finest thoroughbreds and turn them into mules.

Maybe the younger generations have the right idea, Seek ways to exercise your leadership skills while climbing the ladder. That way when you reach the top you have developed the right skills to be an effective leader.

My colleagues and I, in the leadership development field, have been preaching this ad nauseum. We are either preaching to empty pews or on deaf ears.

It is a persistent problem that no one cares to find a solution. Yet the solution is so simple and cost effective in the end.

So are you old school and still in the habit of turning your thoroughbreds into mules?

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Tags: Broken, Business, evolution, Insight, Leadership, Management, Peter Principle, Problem resolution, Smart solutions, succession