As a young project manager, Mario had been successful at meeting the deadline and holding profit margins on each of the four projects he completed. Paul, his manager, wanted to give him a promotion, but was gun-shy.

The last project manager Paul promoted had done well on smaller projects, but the responsibilities of longer range projects had overwhelmed him. In the end, Paul had to let him go. It was almost as if the promotion ruined a good junior project manager.

“You don’t test a person’s time span by promoting them,” I said. “Though not impossible, it is very difficult to backtrack a promotion. Instead, test a person’s time span by giving them longer range projects to work on. Only if they are successful, do they get the corner office.

“Don’t promote the person to test them. Test the person to earn the promotion.” -TF