Why Promoting Your Best Performer Often Backfires

By Naomi Withers | WBN News | September 2, 2026 Editor: Karalee Greer Subscription to WBN and being a Contributor is Free

The most expensive hire many small companies make is someone they already employ.

The best technician becomes the supervisor. The strongest salesperson takes over the team. It is the obvious move, it feels like a reward, and within a year the team is quieter, slower, and two people have left.

Organizations are not struggling because they cannot tell the difference between managing and leading. They are struggling because they refuse to respect the difference.

Both Jobs Are Real Jobs

Management is structure. Clear expectations, consistent follow-through, someone paying attention to whether the work is actually getting done.

Leadership is direction. Where we are going, why it matters, and how we hold steady when the answer is not obvious.

Both matter. Somewhere along the way a lot of businesses decided management was the lesser of the two and started saying things like "we don't want managers, we want leaders." It sounds modern. It is also how you end up with a team nobody is actually running.

Leadership without management creates chaos. Management without leadership creates compliance. A company that performs well needs both, in the same building, often in the same person.

By The Numbers

The research here is unusually consistent.

Gallup finds that managers account for roughly 70 percent of the variance in team engagement. About half of workers say they have left a job at some point to get away from a manager. And close to four in ten people newly moved into leadership roles struggle badly in their first eighteen months, a figure that has held steady for about fifteen years.

That last number is the one owners underestimate. It is not a talent shortage. It is what happens when a title arrives without any preparation attached to it.

What It Costs When This Goes Wrong

Scale it to a business of thirty people.

One struggling supervisor with a team of six can cost you two departures, the recruiting to replace them, and six months of the remaining four working at half speed while they wonder what is going on.

That is not a soft cost. For most owners it is the largest unbudgeted expense of the year, and it never appears in the training line where it belongs. It shows up in payroll, in missed delivery dates, and in the quiet reshuffling that follows someone's resignation.

The Pattern I Keep Watching

A company announces that every supervisor should be a leader. Good message.

Then those same supervisors are handed a full operational load, a reporting requirement, and a calendar with no white space in it. There is no margin left to actually lead. No time to coach anyone, listen to anyone, or think past Friday.

And the people promoted into those roles were rarely taught the fundamentals of managing humans. No training, no support, a title and more meetings. The underlying assumption seems to be that if we call them leaders, they will become leaders.

That is how a business manufactures struggling managers and frustrated teams.

Where To Start Cheaply

Three questions, asked regularly by anyone who supervises anyone.

How are you doing? How am I doing? What can I be doing to help you?

They sound simple because they are. What they require is humility, self-awareness, and time. Time is exactly what an overloaded supervisor never has, which is why the answer usually starts with taking something off their plate rather than sending them to a course.

Why It Matters

Culture tells the truth about all of this, and it tells it through behaviour rather than values on a wall. Who gets promoted. What gets rewarded. How time is allocated. Whether people are developed or simply deployed.

If leadership in your company feels inconsistent or strained, it is usually a systems problem rather than a talent problem, and systems are something an owner can change this quarter.

Leadership is not a promotion. It is a practice. And practices require investment.

Adapted from an article first published on the Growth Consultant Services blog: Managers vs. Leaders

About The Author

Naomi Withers | WBN News https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-withers-7044491b/

Naomi Withers is the founder of Growth Consultant Services, where she advises founders, CEOs, and executive teams on AI strategy, executive coaching, and high-performance leadership. She writes at growthconsultantservices.com.

Editor: Karalee Greer Subscription to WBN and being a Contributor is Free

Tags: #Naomi Withers #WBN News #Leadership #Management #Employee Engagement #Business Growth #Growth Consultant Services