Leaders Who Don't Want Promotion

The Leadership Challenge Middle East

Leaders Who Don’t Want Promotion
“But of course I want a promotion. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it? It’s called career progression. Oh, and a salary increase - of course.“
We keep saying in these weekly videos that leadership is everyone’s business – but let me be very clear : leadership is not about the promotion.
The discussion this week is based on an instance where someone was promoted to a ‘leadership’ position and then decided that this wasn’t for them. They even asked to be returned to the previous position and pay level.
Does this mean that they were a good leader? Maybe not but we could identify some issues with the selection process, where questions were not asked of the person about their aspirations. Did they fully understand the responsibilities of this role ? We should ask why, in the - hopefully rigorous selection process that those managing this didn’t do the necessary ‘due diligence’ before the promotion was confirmed.
That said, leadership is important at all levels of the organization.
Individuals can ‘shine’ as their behaviors and their attitude demonstrates strong leadership. That on its own, doesn’t mean that the individual will become the CEO of the organization - of course, there are other attributes that are determinants for career progression.
Some people are perfectly happy at the level they are at within the organization and may be happy to stay here in this role for the next 20 years.
Does it mean they are not a leader? Of course not.
As a leader of others in the organization, it’s your responsibility, not only to build their leadership strengths and to foster leadership behaviors, but also to encourage them to progress further in the organization because of the leadership skills and also their other performance attributes. In this position, you can identify , those who deserve to move to the next level through promotion and those who are really comfortable to stay where they are and perform extremely well – without the need to move to the next level.
Leaders developed leaders, as we have said before. But it’s important to remember, that fulfillment as a leader is not necessarily dependent upon promotion to the next level above.
Leadership doesn’t need a promotion for the individual to be ‘fulfilled’ or rewarded - or for them to perform at their best.