You ask: One of my managers has been pushing for a promotion for sometime now. He is very good technically and excellent in front of the customer but his office admin and man management is poor.
A recent reorganisation enabled me to create a new senior management role within my team. Whilst the obvious candidate was the above manager company procedure dictates that the role be advertised internally and all suitable applicants go through an interview process.
As it turned out there only was only one applicant; the manager mentioned above. However in the interview he performed abysmally and I am now at a loss as to what to do. On this performance I and the other two senior managers on the interview panel agreed that he does not deserve nor will he be given this promotion.
I do not want to loose this manager but feel that telling him that he has not got the role even though he was the only applicant will not go down well. How can I communicate this news without causing bad feeling between us?
Janet Answers: I can see why you would not want to loose this manager – being technically competent and also excellent in front of the customer is a rare talent. It seems strange that this individual would perform ‘abysmally’ in an interview. I would have thought that this situation would have played to all his strengths.
Could it be that your manager, acknowledging that office admin is not one of his strengths, completely misunderstood the purpose of the interview; after all he was the only candidate? Perhaps he thought that the promotion was a done deal and therefore no preparation was needed.
I’m wondering whether you sat down with this individual prior to the interview and walk him through what was going to happen, what he could expect from the panel and what they would expect from him. If you didn’t then this could be one way to initiate the interview debrief that is clearly required. If you did then I’d want to understand why he chose to ignore your guidance.
I’d certainly start any meeting by asking this individual for his views on how he performed in the interview. I would like to think that he already knows that he’s blown it.
Whether your manager recognises that his performance was lacking or not you must ensure that he acknowledges this by the end of your meeting. By walking him through each stage of the interview procedure you can use this as a baseline to build a picture of where he performed well and where he did not. When you have finished this process you will have created a performance improvement plan that clearly shows what action is required and where.
You may want to put yourself in your manager’s position. How is he likely to behave once he understands that he has not got the promotion he wanted? Will he question why an interview was necessary in the first place? If so then it would be wise to be prepared to answer that question.
Interviews are not just there to choose the best candidate but to ensure that standards are maintained across the business. I’m sure that is why you had an interview panel which no doubt was made up of a cross section of your senior management team and probably included someone from HR.
Let’s assume that you have had the meeting with your manager and although he is not entirely happy he does accept that his performance fell short of what was required. What happens now?
Would you be happy to ask the interview panel to sit again? If so how quickly could this be convened? There may be a stipulated time period before this can take place or your manager may require some time to complete the actions agreed in your interview debrief meeting.
Lastly, I’d ask you to consider whether the promotion on offer is really a role that this individual can excel in. You say that he has been “pushing for a promotion for sometime”. Do you know why that is?
How does your company reward its people? Is the only way to progress up the career ladder to move into senior management? Perhaps you have an ‘individual contributor’ career path that would better suit this individual; you’ve admitted yourself that he is not great man manager material.
Remember as you prepare to sit down with debrief your manager on the outcome of his interview it will be far more constructive to focus on the future than dwelling on his poor performance during the interview. Having a number of workable options available for you to explore together will help to keep the meeting positive and moving in the right direction.
Categories: On the coaching couch ,
Comments
All comments
You need to be registered with the IET to leave a comment. Please log in or register as a new user.