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Why do organisations appoint the wrong people? 

There are many reasons why the wrong people get promoted but its not a new thing. Disgruntled employees used to say ,”It’s not what you know but who you know “ to get on in this organisation. Academics identified a tendency for organisations to promote individuals to their level of incompetence,  meaning people were promoted as a reward for their performance in their previous post with little regard to whether that equipped them for their new post and stoped promoting them once they were in a post where they struggled to deliver. Often very competent professionals are appointed to management posts, the thinking being their experience will equip them to oversee other professionals. But the skills required of a manager are very different and exceptional professionals don’t always make competent managers. Recruitment panels particularly for senior posts often mistake confidence and charm for leadership potential. Overconfident candidates over estimate their ability and exaggerated their influence/ input  into past successes and the standard interview may not provide the time, opportunity or expertise to test out their claims in detail. 

 

Most organisations recognise the benefits even the necessity of improving the quality of leadership in their managers. Whether that is through courses on unconscious bias or executive coaching and mentoring. Helping managers gain insight into how their behaviour effects others does appear to improve their people management skills but a lot of time, effort and money could be saved by appointing the right people in the first place. To say nothing of the damage caused by incompetence managers that HR invariably find themselves trying to repair. 

 

There are simply not enough obstacles in the path of those whose confidence and ambition exceeds their ability. Some honest feedback might help. Those who are currently managed by or who work alongside an over ambitious individual would be in a position to provide a realist appraisal. Not many line managers are prepared to say ,” You’re not ready for this promotion” or more diplomatically ,” This  opportunity has come a little too early for you.” Not that an over confident, over ambitious individual would take much notice. A greater willingness to identify an individuals weaknesses as well as strengths in references would make a difference but line managers are well advised to stick to the verifiable facts in our litigious climate. Which puts the emphases on the short listing and the interview panel. 

 

The emphases in the Person Specification needs to be much more on “ people management skills”. Typical interview questions to prob those skills are, 

How would your direct reports describe your management style? ( It might be more revelling to ask how their colleagues would describe working with them.) Give us an example of how you dealt with a negative or cynical member of staff who was undermining the teams morale? Tell us about a change you have managed which was unpopular within  your own team , how did you motivate people and over come the opposition? 

 

An important indicator of an individual’s people management skills is their insight into how their behaviour effects others. A simple but direct question would be  “ What  have you been told are your weaknesses how are you addressing them? “

 

Finally we need to be smarter in our interview technic in interrogating a candidate’s track record. Are they claiming credit for the work of others, have they exaggerated their contribution? This means picking candidates up on claims made in their application form and allowing panel members to ask supplementary questions. 

 

Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk 

 

 

 

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