The Metiss Group's Blog

We recently met a General Manager who has had an assistant manager working for him for the past six years.  The GM has groomed the protégée well and the assistant is more than prepared for a more challenging role.  Unfortunately, the GM is not ready to move on and there is nowhere for the superstar to move up within the organization.

Instead of enjoying the luxury of having a competent direct report staying on as his right-hand man forever, the GM strongly urged/requested the direct report look for a GM’s role in another organization.  The GM was beaming like a parent watching their child graduate from college as he told us about all the great opportunities for which his direct report was interviewing.

We admire the GM’s vision, altruism, and business savvy.  By realizing it was time for the direct report to leave and encouraging him to do so, the GM can now develop other leaders in the organization and will have a close colleague he can turn to within the industry.  If the assistant had stayed on, ultimately he would lack challenges and growth. he would stagnate, and perhaps his work would suffer.

One of our favorite interview questions for leaders is to ask them to describe the accomplishments of their direct reports. How they have developed others provides great insight as to their potential as a leader.

Empower your direct reports to gain the skills for them to out grow their role, encourage them to move on to more challenging roles internally or externally, and you both experience more success.

This entry was posted on August 15, 2011 at 11:09 am and is filed under Leadership. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.