It’s one of the most common promotion pathways in Australian businesses: a standout salesperson becomes the sales manager. A brilliant technician is handed the reins of a team. A top biller is put in charge of junior staff.
It makes intuitive sense. High performance = leadership potential… right?
Not necessarily.
In fact, promoting top performers without assessing for leadership readiness is one of the biggest causes of poor culture, team dysfunction, and performance slumps. Here’s why.
Performance and Leadership Are Two Completely Different Skillsets
Let’s break it down:
| Top Performer | Effective Leader |
|---|---|
| Excels at individual contribution | Delivers through others |
| Relies on technical mastery | Relies on influence and empathy |
| Often competitive and self-motivated | Must focus on team cohesion and morale |
| Manages their own time and results | Coaches others through blockers |
Promoting someone for being great at their job doesn’t mean they’ll be great at helping others do theirs.
The Hidden Costs of Misaligned Promotions
Promoting the wrong person can have ripple effects across the team and business. You may see:
- High performer burnout due to lack of leadership skills
- Decreased team morale as leadership becomes inconsistent or unclear
- Increased turnover — especially among high-potential team members
- Business performance dips when the team underperforms and the new leader is overwhelmed
Even worse? You’ve now lost a great individual contributor and created a leadership gap.
Why It Happens So Often
- Lack of a leadership pipeline
Most businesses don’t build leadership readiness programs — they wait until there’s a vacancy, then pick the most visible person. - Misunderstanding of what leadership is
Leadership is often seen as a “promotion,” not a different job altogether. - Reward mindset
Businesses want to “reward” high performers with a promotion — when they might prefer growth, scope, or money without people leadership.
Signs Someone Isn’t Ready (Yet) for a Leadership Role
- They struggle with delegation and want to “do it all themselves”
- They avoid hard conversations
- They view team problems as individual issues (“they just need to work harder”)
- They measure success only by outcomes, not how outcomes are achieved
- They lack curiosity about others’ development or motivations
These aren’t character flaws — but they are signals that coaching, training, or reflection is needed before moving into a people leader role.
What You Can Do Instead
✅ Create dual career pathways
Let top performers grow their salary, title, and responsibilities without managing people. Not everyone aspires to be a manager.
✅ Test for leadership readiness before promoting
Use internal assessments, leadership simulations, or trial mentoring responsibilities.
✅ Support first-time leaders with structured development
Being promoted and thrown into the deep end is a recipe for failure. Instead, equip new managers with:
- Leadership onboarding
- Coaching or mentoring
- Access to internal or external leadership development
A platform like Hack Your HR offers tailored leadership programs that address these exact capability gaps, especially in growing Australian businesses with limited internal resources.
✅ Reward contribution without assuming leadership is the end goal
Let technical excellence or client impact be rewarded in its own right. Not every brilliant operator should be forced into a manager mould.
Leadership Should Be a Calling — Not Just the Next Step
People leadership is a craft. It demands emotional intelligence, resilience, self-awareness, and a genuine desire to see others succeed.
If someone doesn’t want to coach, mentor, give feedback, or deal with conflict — why would you put them in a role where those are daily tasks?
By rethinking how you promote, and what you’re promoting for, you can avoid the trap of “accidental managers” and build a true leadership culture.
Final Thought: Don’t Break What Was Working
Top performers are valuable — but don’t let that blind you to what the team needs. If you want a great team, you need great leaders — not just great individual contributors wearing a new title.
And if you’re unsure how to design those pathways, organisations like Hack Your HR are already helping Australian businesses redesign leadership for long-term success.