How not to elevate a colleague to a leadership role

One of the challenges leaders often come up against is how they can best instil a performance culture within their group. Much of this effort is around instilling a vision and an accessible plan that your team will buy into, linked to the values and behaviours that will forge your culture.

However, no leader can build this alone. You will need support, and the best way to instil culture is to get to a self-policing environment where behaviours form a culture leading to results.

Not only are you looking to align and build, but you are also looking for the pillars of your new culture and values, those people who will, in turn, be your leaders and who will embrace the new journey together with you. It is these people who will live the behaviours that will underpin and create your culture.

Finding these heroes early is critical to building your team. By exemplifying the values and behaviours that will shape your culture, both you and your team will steer the mission forward. Do not be shy to tell these critical players that you are conferring on them this leadership role, and bring them into decision-making and people decisions where appropriate.

What this often requires, and particularly if the group is large or geographically distributed, is the identification and enrolment of your leaders of tomorrow, who will become the cultural beacons for the transformation you are embarking upon. It is they who will help to distill your communicated message, and who within your cohort will support, motivate, and focus everyone on the commonly aligned goals you have set.

This is easily stated, but some leaders can struggle to inspire a colleague to take on more responsibility, or to take a step toward acting more like a leader.

Here what not to do when encouraging folks to step up and take a more enhanced role:

Don’t pressure or force them

The first thing you must not do is to assume that they want it, especially if it the ask is not going to come with more compensation, or even an elevated title, straight away. Approach the topic, therefore, with some delicacy. The way you approach this can significantly impact their willingness and readiness to take on the new challenge.

Applying pressure can be damaging and counterproductive to what you are trying to build. Pressure can lead to resentment and stress, especially if you are asking someone to go beyond their comfort zone.

If a colleague is feeling pressured into a role that they are not ready or interested in, then their performance and morale can suffer. This can lead to avoidance, distraction, and possibly even a desire to leave the company, or to refuse to take on new challenges in the future.

You should as a leader be in the business of constructing a binding message and vision for the business. This should involve the lived values and behaviours you would like to see as part of your outreach to your colleague. Having an open conversation about their role, should be a motivational and supportive process, not one driven by pressure or coercion.

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Instead, share your values and vision for the business and encourage your colleague by highlighting their strengths and potential. Be clear on the roles and behaviors that you are asking them to deliver but make it clear that the decision is theirs to make. Offer to provide support and resources if required to help them to succeed, should they choose to step up. Always allow them time to consider.

Do not overlook their current workload

Encouraging someone to take on more responsibility without considering their current workload can be overwhelming and counterproductive. Of course, it could be that you are asking someone to be a bridge to other functions, building the network and spreading the word about your area’s vision and focuses.

It could also be that you want them to deliver through their ‘soft skills,’ such as showing up with values and behaviours such as “better together,” which implies the forging of individual internal networks, and focus on collaboration to find solutions to problems in the business. Whilst you might not consider these actions impactful on a colleague’s current responsibilities, you must also consider how much this is pushing someone beyond their comfort zone.

This stress alone, if unsupported, could serve to impact their current effectiveness within their current role. Instead, have an open and clear discussion about their current role, workload, and your defined new set of responsibilities, and how these might be integrated. Consider also, redistributing some of their tasks, or providing additional resources if required. This shows that you care about their well-being and are also committed to their success.

Don’t ignore their career goals

Again, don’t assume that they want it. Assuming everyone wants to take on more responsibility or a leadership role can be a mistake. Not everyone has the same career aspirations. This could especially be the case if the new responsibilities do not align with their career goals. If this is the case, they may feel unmotivated or disconnected from their work, and this could lead to a lack of engagement.

Instead, discuss their career aspirations and how taking on additional responsibilities will align with their long-term career goals. Demonstrate how the new responsibilities will help them to grow and advance in their desired direction. If you treat the approach as you would a sale, and tailor yourself to their individual goals you can make the proposition more appealing and relevant.

Don’t fail to provide proper training and support, including coaching

Do not assume that your colleague can immediately handle the new responsibilities without some form of training and perhaps close mentorship and support, particularly if the ask is to be a pillar of support toward a change of culture through demonstration of soft skills, values and behaviours.

Without proper preparation, they may struggle with their new responsibilities, leading to frustration and possible failure. This can lead to discouragement and serve only to undermine confidence.

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Instead, offer them all the support and advice, coaching and mentorship that they need. Regular check-ins can help address any issues early on and ensure that your colleague feels that they are invested in, and gaining all the support they need to be successful. Remember to always create and support a psychological safe space for your people to express themselves in, without fear or judgement.

Don’t neglect to recognise and celebrate their efforts

Encouraging someone to take on more responsibility without recognition and celebration of their successes, can lead to a lack of motivation and sense of appreciation. The worst outcome could be that the ask made of them can seem insincere or exploitative.

Failing to acknowledge hard work and achievements can come across as inauthentic and lead to feelings of being undervalued and under-appreciated. This of course can have the total opposite affect from creating a centre of leadership aligned to your vision, goals, values and behaviours.

Instead, you might create a pocket of counter programming in your organisational set up. Instead, regularly acknowledge their progress as positive reinforcement boosts morale, motivating them to forge ahead.

Public recognition is also a powerful motivator and especially useful when building culture, if aligned to your published values and behaviours, such as “Winning it together,” “Creating magic,” and so on. Do not miss the opportunity to reinforce what you are trying to build by not acknowledging your organisational cultural building heroes.

Conclusion

Inspiring a colleague to step up and take on more responsibilities in a leadership role, requires a thoughtful approach matched to authentic support.

By avoiding the pitfalls of pressuring them, overloading their workload, ignoring their career goals, failing to provide support and training, neglecting to celebrate them – you can create a positive and motivating environment to encourage growth, not only of this individual but of the team and culture you are building.

Ultimately, by identifying the leaders in your group and working closely with them, you can get to a self-policing environment. That said, you must keep it fresh and ensure that you are always working to bind the group to the goals you are setting. This is why it is vital to identify and map your talent and potential leaders in the group early.

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