Latest / Your Dream Coach Podcast / Promoted and Unprepared: Why Your Best Performer Is Struggling as a Leader
Transcript
- Your Dream Coach Podcast: You promoted your best performer, and then six months later, their numbers are down, their team is frustrated, and honestly, so are you. And if that's happening in your business, it's not a people problem, it's a leadership development problem. So stay with me. Welcome back to today's episode of your Dream Coach podcast. I'm your host, Shayla Wei. And before we dive in, I want to remind you about something I'm so excited about. My first book, Dream Bigger, Lead Better, launches December 1st. And a big part of that book is about how leaders are built, not born. And today's episode is a perfect preview of that. So you can grab your spot on the launch list at on the website that will be in our notes here with the show. But for today's episode, this is really for every business owner who's ever taken their top performer, handed them a team, and assumed they would just figure it out. And it's for every new leader who got the promotion and quietly wondered. Why is this so much harder than I thought? And so here's a number that stopped me in my tracks. Gallup's latest global workplace research found that fewer than half, fewer than half of managers, about 44%, say they've never, ever received management training. Less than half. So almost most of the people leading teams right now are figuring it out as they go. So this Is the Dream Coach podcast where leadership fulfillment and growth aren't three different goals, they're one. And I help entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders dream bigger, lead better, and build the vision, sales, and systems together, growing the business and the person running it. So today we're going to talk about why your best performer doesn't automatically become your best leader. The four gaps that show up when someone is promoted without preparation and exactly how to build leaders on purpose. So your business can grow beyond you. So let's talk about the promotion trap. And here's how it usually happens: someone on your team is crushing it. They're your top seller, your most reliable technician, your go-to person. They're hungry, they're loyal, and they've earned something. So you promote them. It feels like the right thing to do. You reward performance with a title. But here's what we miss is the skills that make them great as a performer are not the same skills. That will make them a that always great as a leader. Sometimes they're the opposite. A great performer wins by doing, and a great leader wins by developing. A great performer is focused on their own results, and a great leader is focused on everyone else's. A great performer jumps in and fixes it, and a great leader resists the urge to fix it and coaches instead. So when you promote someone for being an excellent doer and then ask them to stop doing, You have just taken away the very thing that made them feel confident. And so no wonder they struggle. So why does this keep happening? Well, what we found is that business owners keep falling into this for three reasons. First, it's fast. You need a leader now, and your best person is right there. Second, is it feels fair. You don't want to lose your top performer, and promotion feels like the way to keep them. And third, and this is the honest one, is a lot of us were promoted the exact same way. Nobody trained us either. We figured it out the hard way, so we assume they will too. But they'll figure it out is not a leadership development strategy. It's hope. And hope is expensive. And so when a new leader struggles, you don't just lose their production. You often lose team members, momentum, and sometimes the leader themselves. And I've lived both sides of this. In direct sales, I spent over 20 years building teams across Canada. And I had the privilege of developing over 100 managers. But I didn't start out good at it. Early on, I promoted people the same way most homeowners do. Who's selling the most? And I'll tell you about one that really changed how I lead. And I had developed a top leader, someone I believed in and had invested in. And then I watched him handle situation with the newer team member in a way that was all about himself, selfish, not who I wanted leading people. And so when I called it out, he pushed back hard. And so my coach helped me separate the facts from the feelings. And what I realized was that I had never been clear about what I expected from a leader. I'd been promoting on my own results, but I'd never written down the values and behaviors that had to come with them. And so I did. I wrote down my non-negotiables for anyone stepping into leadership. And it changed everything. It made promotion decisions clearer, and it made the hard decisions, including letting people go, black and white. And so today, As a coach leading teams, I think about this constantly. I still take care of my own business and what I need to be doing day to day because I know how tempting it can be to just do this all yourself. And sometimes leading means doing less and developing more. And so it's something I really think about constantly is is what I'm doing something that I need to do, or can I be delegating this to somebody else that can help me, you know, to continue to grow the business? So, some of the signs that your new leader is drowning, and before we get into the fix, I want to make sure that you can spot it. And here's what I see most often is they're still doing everything themselves. They're the top performer on their own team, and their people are not growing. They avoid hard conversations. They used to be one of the team and now holding friends accountable feels awkward. So they don't. They swing between buddy and boss. One week they're everyone's friend. The next week they're cracking down. They their own numbers drop and they don't understand why. Because they're busier than ever, but getting less done. And they stop bringing you problems, not because there aren't any, but because they're afraid it makes them look like they can't handle it. And so if two or three of those sound familiar, your leading isn't failing. They're just unsupported. And so let's talk about the four gaps. When I coach business owners through this, I look for four gaps. Gap one is the identity gap. They still see themselves as the best performer, not as the leader. So their self-worth is tied to their personal numbers. Until that shifts, they'll keep jumping in to save the day. So the question I ask is: what would it look like to be proud of your team's results instead of your own? Gap two is the skill gap. And no one taught them how to run a, you know, one-on-one or give feedback or coach a call, hold someone accountable. And these are all learnable skills. They are not personality traits. Gap number three is the clarity gap. So they don't actually know what success looks like in this role. And so what are they measured on? What decisions can they make without you? When the role is fuzzy, people default to what they know, which is doing. And gap number four is the support gap, is they got the title and then got left alone. No regular coaching from you, no peer group, no space to say, I don't know how to handle this. And so most new leaders are dealing with at least two of these at one time. So how do we build leaders on purpose? Well, what do you do instead? And here's what worked for me and for the owners that I coach. One is promote for potential, not just performance. Yes, results matter, but so do values, coachability, and whether people naturally want to follow them. Write down your non-negotiables before you need them. Two is to build a runway before the title. So give them a leadership trial. Run maybe a staff meeting, maybe they onboard a new hire, they coach one teammate for 30 days. Let them practice before the promotion, not after. The third is to define the role in writing. So what are the what are they responsible for? What does a great month look like? And what decisions are theirs? I build roles as if they already exist. before I fill them. So the role isn't shaped around who's ever convenient. Number four is to coach them weekly for the first 90 days. So not a status update, a real coaching conversation. What went well, where are you stuck? What's one skill we're working on this week? And then five is to give them permission to struggle. Tell them out loud, this is a new skill. You won't be great at it right away and that's expected. That one sentence takes away so much fear. And here's the part that people miss is tie it into their dream. When a new leader understands how leading well gets them closer to the life that they want, whether that's more income, more freedom, or more impact, they lean into the hard parts instead of avoiding them. So what I learned the hard way is I used to think rewarding people by promoting them was the right way to do this. Sometimes I was actually setting them up to really fail. And so the kindest thing that you can do for a high performer isn't a title, it's preparation. And I always believed in people more than they believed in themselves. And I still do. But belief without support isn't enough. Your people need your belief and your structure. And so if your business has outgrown the way you're leading it, one of the first places it shows up is in the leaders you've built or haven't built yet. So here's your challenge this week. Think about the newest leader in your business and ask them one question. What part of this role do you feel least prepared for? And then just listen. If you want to go deeper on how leaders are built, that's a huge part of my book, Dream Bigger, Lead Better, launching December 1st. And you can get on the launch list. And so if this episode helped you, it would mean so much if you'd support the show. On Apple Podcasts, you can leave a rating and a review. On Spotify, hit follow and give it a rating. And on YouTube, you can drop a comment and tell me which of the four gaps you're seeing most in your business right now. And just remember that a great performer wins by doing. A great leader wins by developing. They'll figure it out, it's not a strategy, it's hope. And it's the kindest thing that you can do for a high performer, isn't a title, it's preparation. So continue to dream bigger and lead better. We'll see you next time.