The crucial promotion is into the group from which tomorrow’s top people will have to be selected.
If a company is to obtain the needed contributions, it must reward those who make them. Decisions on people and especially its promotions affirm what an organization really believes in, really wants, really stands for. They speak louder than words and tell a clearer story than any figures.
The crucial promotion is not a person’s first—though it may be the most important one to her and to her career. Nor is it the final one into the top position; there a management must choose from a small, already preselected group. The crucial promotion is into the group from which tomorrow’s top people will have to be selected. It is the decision at the point where the pyramid in an organization narrows abruptly. Up to this point, there are in a large organization usually forty to fifty people to choose from for every vacant spot. Above it, the choice narrows to one out of three or four. Up to this point also, a person usually works in one area or function. Above it, she works in the business.
ACTION POINT: Use your influence to ensure that promotions to positions of senior leadership affirm what your organization really stands for.
Managing for Results
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker