By Ryan Browne, VP of Customer Success at Kenect

During a recent 1:1 with a direct report we had a conversation about a topic that I feel is often ignored, but critical to department heads in fast growing companies: Preparing our people for future promotions. Kenect is growing very quickly. We were recently recognized by several publications as one of the fastest growing companies in Utah. So, it’s natural that the conversation tends to center around individuals, their performance, and what we can do to provide them with growth opportunities.

How do You Prepare Employees For Growth?

The basic premise of the conversation during that 1:1 was something like this – We want to hire people with experience who can step into a new role and knock it out of the park. We also value promoting top performers from within. How, then, do we appropriately balance the expectation of prior experience with the desire to give up-and-comers an opportunity to grow?

Bringing in new people that have experience can be the jolt of energy your organization needs. These individuals bring with them new ideas and a different way of thinking that can counter-balance unconscious biases that may exist in your organization. What they lack in institutional knowledge is made up for in energy, excitement, and fresh perspective. Alternatively, promoting top performers from within is equally as positive for your organization. It shows growth and progress is possible. It shows leadership recognizes individual contributions. And it breeds loyalty. What these individuals may lack in experience is counter-balanced by their deep understanding of organizational process, culture, and behaviors.

How do we prepare our internal people for promotions?

What can be done to provide relevant experience and exposure to internal candidates so that promoting from within doesn’t necessarily equate to hiring someone without experience? Wise leaders recognize the need to give individuals opportunities to gain experience BEFORE being promoted so that those same individuals achieve success AFTER they are promoted. Here is a short list of things you can do to help internal candidates be prepared for their next promotion:

• Find a meaningful project for the individual to be involved in that provides next-level exposure: You might be thinking to yourself right now -- “no duh, Ryan!”. However, the importance of this principle cannot be overstated. This is one of the best ways to provide relevant experience to individuals who lack it. Here’s a practical example of this principle. Our Customer Success organization is partnering cross-functionally with other departments at Kenect to re-imagine our Lifecycle Management strategy. The heads of each department could probably generate the ideas, create outcomes, make appropriate plans, and push the project to completion. However, a project like this is the perfect opportunity to get others involved from varying levels of the organization. Giving someone an assignment to develop the outcomes and playbooks for a specific stage of the lifecycle not only provides them with experience and exposure; it also creates a more robust lifecycle strategy. More involvement from more people equates to more and different types of ideas. The project is infused with new thought. And your up-and-coming employees gain relevant experience and exposure on a key strategic priority.

• Have individuals begin to report on next level metrics on a regular basis: Those who lack experience often struggle early in their new positions because they haven’t yet built the expertise and understanding regarding the metrics that matter most. They lack intuition on the connection between metrics and performance. It’s through experience that you come to understand what “levers to pull”, right? To counteract this, provide the list of key metrics for the next level role to the individual. Where possible, ask them to begin measuring their own performance, but using those metrics. Or, if that isn’t possible, provide them access to data (with your oversight, of course) to begin crunching numbers themselves. Giving them exposure to the metrics BEFORE they get into the role will help them better understand the interconnectedness of behaviors, performance, and key indicators before they must own those numbers themselves.

• Invite them to meetings that involve next level counterparts: Building relationships with those you work with is key to success. Invite your people to meetings where they can begin to interact with those who they’ll potentially be working with in the future. Create opportunities for them to associate and work together. Take them to lunches with you so that relationships can be formed outside of work. Those early interactions will pave the way for future relationships being built with quickness and ease.

Following these principles, amongst the many other things that can be done, will help your people feel prepared for their new role. Also, it will give you confidence that they understand what is expected of them. By starting early to develop your people for future promotions, you won’t have to question whether an internal candidate has what it takes to be successful in a new role. You’ll have witnessed their capabilities yourself.

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