In the business world, the drive to climb the corporate ladder can sometimes obscure the fact that our skills for a particular role don’t always guarantee a smooth transition to a new position.

In other words: not everyone is ideally suited for a leadership role.

Business media recently picked up on this trend, noting that the phenomenon of employers promoting their “best” employees has been leading to dissatisfaction and burnout when staff are eventually appointed to a position for which they are not well suited. The problem is that not every star salesperson has the sales leadership qualities to be a strong manager. The solution? As my colleague Jonathan Hebbes has shown: have a plan for succession, and hire for performance.

But there’s a caveat: hire for the kind of performance the new role – not the employee’s current one – requires.

Hire for the Position – Not the Person

Seems intuitive, right? If you’re hiring a Sales Director, it makes sense to pick someone with the right aptitudes and strengths for the role, not just someone who’s great at the work they’re currently doing (which, frankly, could be irrelevant). But then why are so many of us surprised and confused when the exceptional salespeople we promote to leadership roles flounder in their new positions, which require particular organisational, planning and interpersonal skills they never needed (and so maybe never developed) for their previous role?

Not All Skills Are Transferrable

While it’s certainly true that some of the best leaders emerge from within and inspire by doing, it’s also the case – and probably more often true – that just because someone is great at what they do does not mean that they’ll be great at something else. Excellent salespeople excel at selling; that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be great at mentoring and leading others to sell well. And we’re not doing ourselves, our teams, or our high-performers any favours by continuing to push them to take on new and different roles – especially if the change leaves them frustrated and unchallenged.

Managers should also consider the potential revenue losses of promoting a strong Salesperson to a non-sales role. Are there strategies in place to make up the difference?

The Solution?

Hire Sales Directors based on a proven performance of strong leadership qualities, solid mentorship, strategic vision, a keen sense of metrics, and excellent interpersonal skills – i.e., the kinds of strategic leadership skills a successful Sales Director needs to have – not just based on their sales skills. To empower a sales team and hit the ground running, a Sales Leader needs these skills from Day 1; it’s not always reasonable to expect that they’ll be able to develop these strengths after they’ve been promoted.

Often this will mean that promoting from within is not feasible or ideal. That’s fine. The perceived loss to morale will pale in comparison to the blow of appointing someone unsuited for the role. If no clear leader emerges from an internal search, the best move would be to hire someone who can take the reins until a strong candidate emerges, and who can mentor their eventual replacement for a seamless transition.

As Donald McGannon said, “leadership is an action – not a position.” Our recruitment and advancement policies would do well to reflect this insight.