The personnel file was on the desk. Sandra looked despondent. “She has worked for us for two years. We thought she was ready, so we promoted her into the position. It is obvious now that it’s not going to work out. I don’t want to fire her, but if we demote her, she is going to quit. Either way I lose.”
“What’s the lesson learned,” I asked.
“To know whether a person is ready for a position before you promote them, but how do you know?” asked Sandra.
“Exactly,” I responded. “How do you know? How can you find out?”
Sandra thought, but the answer came quickly. “I know what all the responsibilities are. I could have given her bits and pieces over time to see how she did. If I had done that, I would have known that she had difficulty with three of the core elements of the position.”
“And so you could have continued to work with her, now it looks like she is on her way out. How much did this lesson cost you?”
Been there, done that. On occasion I’ve seen people be successfully “promoted” back into a former role in order to save them from leaving. I’ve done this at least once myself. It’s obviously better to do what you recommend above and avoid the situation all together which is what we try and do now. I just wanted to throw out there that although difficult and uncommon, it is possible to recover from a mistake like this without necessarily losing the person.