A challenge every leader faces is the difficulty of levelling, i.e. hiring a new manager over a direct report. The employee may want to maintain the reporting relationship because they value access to the leader or because it conveys a higher status (or both.) The employee may be attached to their particular role and the responsibilities it carries. And even in the best of circumstances, levelling an employee may still feel (or look) like a demotion. So taking this step always comes with the risk that the employee will accept the move grudgingly, and that their resentment may hinder their performance or undermine their relationship with the new manager. And yet there are reasons why a leader may prefer to run this risk rather than simply terminate an employee who's no longer fulfilling the requirements of their role.
In many cases a performance gap has emerged not as a result of any shortcomings on the part of the employee, but simply because the company's growth has changed the nature of the job, and a different or more comprehensive set of skills are now required. The employee may also be someone who joined the company at an earlier, riskier stage, and as a result the leader may feel particularly loyal to them and be reluctant to see them leave.
Occasionally the employee being levelled is one of the few remaining from an earlier stage in the company's life, and the leader may not just feel loyal toward them, but also believe that retaining the employee in some capacity will sustain a community from which everyone benefits (including the leader).
The leader also has to take into account the likely impact on the employees' peers--simply terminating the employee in these circumstances can create a climate of fear and anxiety, eroding overall performance. (At the same time, waiting too long to take action can cause peers to resent the lagging employee or signal a tolerance for ineffectiveness and a lack of accountability.)
The best outcome is that the employee not only accepts but agrees with the leader's decision. It's a stretch to expect someone to respond with enthusiasm, but in some cases even that's possible. In my experience here are the factors that contribute to a successful levelling:
1. Data
There's evidence of a performance gap, indicating the employee's inability to fulfill the requirements of the role. The leader and the employee don't need to agree completely on the cause of the gap--it's not uncommon for an employee to feel that they have the potential to close it through growth and development, while the leader is less confident (or is unable to wait). But it's important that both the leader and the employee can observe the data together and agree that a gap exists and the employee isn't able to fill it at present. Optimally the leader and the employee are both tracking this data over time, so that when it becomes necessary to make a change it doesn't come as a surprise.
So what can leaders do?
- Insure that all parties have access to the data being used to assess performance, as well as the subjective interpretations of that data.
- Share negative feedback early so the employee has the opportunity to refute the perception of underperformance or make adjustments in response.
2. Non-Defensiveness
The employee possesses the emotional maturity to respond to the move without defensiveness. This isn't a quality people either possess or lack, and it can certainly be developed over time. It cannot, however, be developed quickly under pressure, which is why it's essential to look for it in the hiring process and to cultivate it as a management practice.
So what can leaders do?
- Encourage people to stretch themselves on a regular basis and increase their comfort with discomfort.
- Establish and maintain a culture in which people speak up when there's bad news, to normalize the experience and model and promote healthy responses.
3. Trust
The employee trusts the leader's intentions. They may disagree with the leader's judgment in making the move, but they believe that the leader has their best interests at heart and is not levelling them out of caprice or personal animus. The leader has a great deal of influence over this factor, but only if they've been investing in the relationship over time--last-minute efforts to gain trust will rightly be seen as self-serving and may even have the opposite effect, eroding trust when it's needed most.
So what can leaders do?
- Make a consistent effort to express care and interest in employees as individuals, a process that can begin with small talk.
- Be mindful of the many ways in which they create safety and danger, even (and especially) inadvertently, and work to minimize the risk of a threat response on the employee's part.
4. Learning
The employee believes that they can learn from the incoming manager. Of course, this is contingent on the leader's effectiveness at hiring a new manager who's not only highly experienced, but who also has the ability to impart that knowledge to others.
So what can leaders do?
- Hire people who are open to learning and view themselves as works-in-progress.
- Assess managers on their ability to coach employees.
5. Role Clarity
Both the employee's new role and the distinctions between that role and their former role are clearly defined and commonly understood. There may be peer groups to which the employee no longer belongs and meetings in which they no longer participate, and this is known in advance and accepted by them. This is one reason why it's particularly difficult to level C-suite executives and anyone else who reports to the CEO--membership in that group is often an important source of status in an organization, and being excluded from it can be experienced as a highly visible demotion.
So what can leaders do?
- Carefully consider the implications for the employee's membership and participation in all possible sub-groups.
- Be prepared to have difficult conversations about these changes early on--deferring them until after the move has been finalized generally leaves all parties worse off.
6. Grace
The leader handles every aspect of the process in a graceful way that preserves the employee's status and insures that they feel respected and appreciated. This includes joint assessment by the leader and the employee of the performance data, the steps by which a final decision is made and the employee is informed, the selection of the new manager, and the announcement of the move to the rest of the organization and other stakeholders.
So what can leaders do?
- Check their sense of urgency and slow down, particularly in direct interactions with the employee. (Note how much easier this becomes when there's a practice of sharing negative feedback early.)
- Clearly communicate how decisions will be made at each step so that both parties can determine whether and how to advocate for their point of view.
Photo by H. Matthew Howarth.
