Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast #392: Grow Your People Before You Promote Your People
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Apr 16, 2026 They dig into why promoting top performers without leadership development backfires. They unpack the Peter Principle and real-world promotion pitfalls. They highlight research-backed ways to identify high-potential talent and practical tactics—projects, coaching, and 90-day plans—to build leadership skills before promotion.
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Why Top Performers Fail As Managers
- The Peter Principle explains why top individual contributors fail as managers when promoted without new skills.
- Perry Holley and Chris Goede illustrate engineers, salespeople, and nurses promoted for performance lose required leadership competencies and struggle.
Promotion Often Rewards Performance Not Leadership
- Most frontline leaders are promoted for past performance, not supervisory skill, which explains widespread leadership gaps.
- Gallup found 65% promoted for previous job success while only 30% for supervisory capability.
Disengaged New Managers Drag Down Teams
- Promoting unprepared people severely reduces engagement across teams because disengaged leaders cascade low morale.
- Chris Goede cites Gallup data showing promoted-but-undeveloped leaders often become disengaged, dragging their teams down.
