Topgrading

Those of you who have read the latest edition of Topgrading may remember that the statistics on promoting success are as dismal as those on hiring success.  Why?  Too many promotions are based on the candidate’s performance in their present job.  The candidate’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to the new job are not scrutinized closely enough.  When that happens, too often you get to experience the “Peter Principal” first hand.  (The Peter Principle is the idea that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent.)

Next time you consider someone for promotion, especially if that person will be moving from an individual contributor position to a management position, go through the following steps.

 First, create a detailed Job Scorecard for the new position if one does not already exist.  Next, conduct a Tandem Topgrading Interview with the candidate.  Ideally, the interview should not be conducted by the candidate’s current boss.  However, if that is unavoidable, be sure the other interviewer is an unbiased third party.  After the Topgrading Interview, do 360 interviews with 8 to 10 coworkers.  Those 360 interviews should focus on the new job. 

Follow that process and you will be as successful in promoting high performers as you are in hiring them.