The Cost of Promotions That Shouldn't Happen
The Decision That Feels Easier Than It Is
Promotions are among the most consequential decisions a leader makes, and among those most often made for reasons that have nothing to do with readiness or fit. The person is next in line — they have been there longest, or they are the most visible, or they are close to a senior person who has advocated for them, or they are a flight risk and the promotion is a retention mechanism. These are understandable drivers. They are not the right drivers. And the promotions they produce create problems that ripple through the organisation for years.
The wrong promotion places a person in a role that exceeds their current capability without the development plan to close the gap. The person struggles. Their team suffers. The decisions they make in the early period of their role, before anyone has named the mismatch, may create costs that outlast the tenure of the person promoted. And the person themselves often knows the mismatch — can feel the gap between what is expected and what they can currently deliver — and carries that awareness as a source of anxiety that further impairs their performance.
What Wrong Promotions Do to Teams
The people most directly affected by a wrong promotion are the ones who report to the promoted person. They are now being managed by someone who cannot manage well — who does not have the judgment, the skills, or the experience to develop them, to create the right conditions for their work, or to advocate for them effectively. The most capable people on the team often see the mismatch clearly and begin to disengage or to look for roles elsewhere. The less capable people may not see it but still feel the effects: unclear direction, inconsistent feedback, a lack of the support that makes work manageable.
The damage to the team is not always fast or dramatic. It is often slow — a gradual reduction in the team's performance, a quiet accumulation of disengagement, a progressive loss of the best people who have the clearest view of what is wrong. By the time the promotion is acknowledged as a mistake, the team has already paid a significant portion of the cost.
The Right Reasons for Promotion
Promotions should be driven by two things: demonstrated capability for the role being offered, and evidence of the specific behaviours and judgment the new role requires. Not years served, not visibility, not advocacy from powerful people, and not the desire to retain. The question is not "has this person earned the promotion" in a tenure sense. It is "is this person ready for what this role actually requires."
This distinction is critical because roles change at promotion. The skills that made someone effective as an individual contributor are often not the skills that make them effective as a manager. The skills that made someone an effective manager are often not the skills that make them an effective strategic leader. Promoting on the basis of performance in the current role without assessing readiness for the new one is among the most common sources of wrong promotions.
What the Conversation Before the Promotion Should Include
The conversation that precedes a promotion — done well — includes an honest assessment of where the person is strong and where they have gaps relative to the new role. It includes a development plan for the gaps. It includes explicit expectations about what success looks like in the first ninety days and at the one-year mark. And it includes the acknowledgment that if the role is not working, the conversation about that will happen early and honestly, not at the point where significant damage has already been done.
Most promotion conversations do not include these things. They are celebrations, not assessments. That is appropriate — promotions deserve acknowledgment. But the celebration should not displace the honest preparation that gives the promoted person the best chance of succeeding in what is about to become significantly harder than what they have been doing.
When the Wrong Promotion Has Already Happened
When a wrong promotion has been made and the mismatch is visible, the fastest resolution is almost always better than the slowest one. Allowing the situation to persist does not allow the person to develop into the role — it allows the costs to accumulate in the team, in the decisions made, and in the self-confidence of the person who knows they are not performing as expected. The conversation that addresses the mismatch directly — held with honesty and genuine care for the person's longer-term success — is the right conversation to have. Most organisations are better at having it in theory than in practice.
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