Something Happens When You Promote Your Best Person

And most organisations never see it coming.

 

AHRI’s latest research is clear. Australian organisations are investing heavily in technical skills but falling short when it comes to developing the human ones.

 

Yet we keep taking our best technical people, giving them a bigger desk and a round of applause, and leaving them to figure the rest out themselves.

 

And the same AHRI research tells us that only 15% of Australian employers plan to invest their training budgets in leadership and management development this year.

 

So there they are. Brand new managers. Responsible for the careers, the performance, and the well-being of the people around them.

 

Given a pat on the back and sent on their way. Sure, it’ll be grand!

 

Sound familiar?

 

Here is what usually happens next.

 

A gun salesperson gets promoted to sales manager.

 

The best engineer becomes head of engineering. The person who could always be relied upon to get the job done is now responsible for making sure everyone else does, too.

 

The person who never put a foot wrong is suddenly in charge of making sure nobody else does either.

 

Everyone waits for the magic to continue.

 

And then it goes pear-shaped.

 

We call it the Promotion Trap.

 

The skills that made them exceptional before, drive, focus, personal accountability, and the ability to just get things done, are often the very skills that work against them as a manager.

 

Because great management is not about focusing on yourself.

 

It is about getting the best out of the people around you.

 

And unless they are naturally gifted people managers, most newly promoted leaders default to doing instead of leading.

 

They struggle to delegate.

 

They take the work back.

 

They micromanage without meaning to.

 

Meanwhile, the team starts to disengage.

 

Good people quietly look elsewhere.

 

And by the time the resignation letters arrive, the damage is already done.

 

This is not a personal failure. It is a systemic one.

 

We set people up to struggle and then wonder why they do.

 

The Peter Principle was written in 1969.

 

Here we are in 2026 and the research suggests we are still living it.

 

The good news? This is entirely avoidable.

 

It starts with genuinely understanding who your people are before the promotion is made.

 

How do they think?

 

How do they influence?

 

How do they handle pressure and ambiguity?

 

Do they understand the difference between being a leader and a manager, and can they be both?

 

The most effective approach starts with benchmarking your best managers to understand what actually makes them successful.

 

Then compare your next potential leader against that benchmark.

 

Identifying the gaps honestly.

 

And providing the right support through experienced coaching.

 

Remember, coaching is not teaching.

 

It helps your people to learn, at their own pace, in the context of their own role.

 

Ideally, a promotion should never come as a surprise.

 

It should be part of a deliberate process of building bench strength so that when the moment arrives, your people step into the role with confidence, not apprehension.

 

A promotion should never be a reward for past performance.

 

It should be a considered decision about future fit.

 

Have you seen this play out in your organisation?

 

Where have promotions worked, and where have they fallen short? Drop your experience in the comments.

 

Link to the AHRI research.