The only way is up...or is it?

Business leaders have a responsibility to identify and promote the right people into management positions. After all, building a strong, stable management team is critical to the success of any organisation. However, deciding exactly who to promote into management can be challenging, because eagerness, enthusiasm and even technical competence can easily be misconstrued for management potential.

Ask yourself the following questions when considering promoting an employee into a management position:

• Has the employee demonstrated the actions required to earn the promotion? Incorrect appointments are often made because no detailed thought was given to what attributes or actions were required of the employee to be considered for a promotion in the first place. Employers must clearly stipulate and communicate the precursors to promotion, and then stick to those criteria.

• Are you considering this employee for promotion for the right reasons? It's easy to fall into the trap of promoting a person because they've become a 'problem' in their current team or are bored or under-challenged. But these are not reasons for automatic promotion.

• Do you thoroughly understand the employee's strengths and weaknesses? When a person performs well in an existing role, their strengths can be emphasised and their weaknesses downplayed. Some weaknesses could end up being a bigger problem once the person is in a management position. Making the shift to management shouldn't be underestimated.

Rewards and status are often associated with management positions. Yet there are many other extremely important, specialist roles within companies in which those employees who are not suitable to management posts could well thrive. These roles should be positioned as viable alternate career paths, complete with meaningful status and rewards.

It's vital that management promotions are carefully planned, because the right people in the wrong positions lead to the loss of critical skills and ultimately, demoralised employees.