The post was originally published in Polish on Szymon’s LinkedIn profile. Szymon kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.
We promoted a great specialist to manager. After a short while, it turned out that they were completely unsuitable for this. They were demoted at their own request, thanks to which they finally felt… happy and fulfilled in their role.
Szymon Janiak, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Czysta3.VC
For some time, they had been struggling with their thoughts about what they should do next. They communicated it openly. We have seen that as a specialist they cannot do more. They earned very well for their position, they fulfilled their tasks, but they had a need for development, which was difficult to satisfy with additional activities. Despite the fact that they had never managed people, they were ready for this step. If they know their area perfectly, they can just as well supervise the work of other people – at least that’s what they thought.
Looking at the style of work, competence and character, we had some doubts, but stopping someone by force does not work, and this was a natural direction of development. We agreed on the terms and started a new chapter together.
The specialist’s enthusiasm was extremely short-lived. From the beginning, difficulties in cooperation with the team became visible. They were annoyed that people didn’t listen to them, that they didn’t work similarly, that they didn’t meet their expectations. Frustration turned into conflicts, which in turn turned into a lack of focus. The consequence was mistakes, apparent not only to the team, but to the entire company as well. Initially, we blamed it on a kind of shock related to a radical change of role, we offered support in various forms, but nothing worked.
After a series of failures, the manager, overwhelmed by the proposal, proposed to relegate them to the role of a specialist. They didn’t mind going back to a lower wage, they wanted to get back to what they felt good at. We agreed.
The most interesting thing in all this was the effect. A short adventure with management made them realize that this was not the direction for them at all. They don’t want responsibility, problems or challenges related to the team. The fact that they tried it paradoxically made them feel fulfilled and happy in their position again. The urge to change and thinking what would happen if. This brought a lot of relief and allowed them to enjoy their work for years.
Managing our own fate, it is sometimes worth trying new things, if only to find out that they are not for us. When managing people, on the other hand, it is sometimes worth allowing such a move, even if we think it is a mistake. Satisfying curiosity and drawing the right conclusions can bring great value and, paradoxically, a lot of satisfaction.
The comment section had to add:
A change from a specialist to a manager is not a promotion. This is often a mental error. This is a change of job to a completely different one, and it should not be presented as a promotion, but as just that – a completely new career path.
On a good day, this person should be told that it’s OK if they want to withdraw from it. Why? Otherwise, they will be fighting with it, treating it as a failure, and they must know that this is a new job and maybe they are not suitable for it or don’t want to do it.
You need to provide support – training, materials, mentoring – why? Because this is a new job and they don’t know how to do it, if they are good at it, etc. For example, in our company, such people went to the ‘1st time manager’ training as one of the first steps.
In the context of IT/Tech, there’s the book Manager’s Path.
– Tomasz Onyszko, CTO at Predica Group
The problem is that in some companies, the only possibility of promotion, including financial, for a specialist is the managerial path – particularly, team management. However, there are those where after junior/mid/senior we have a lead, staff, etc. You can give such a person – recognizing their knowledge and technical skills – a role in product management, where they will not have to ‘tire’ of managing a team of people.
– Jacek Skaźnik, Information Technology Architect – Storage & Virtualization at Galderma
Life itself, the best specialist, does not have to be a good manager, the best salesperson does not have to be a good Sales Director – quite often being promoted as a ‘reward.’ Bravo for this person that they noticed it themselves and had the courage to get things back into balance themselves, bravo for the organization that also accepted it.
– Stefan Karmaza, CEO at Vectio Ltd.
Such development of events is still uncommon, in my opinion, for a couple of reasons:
- It requires a lot of maturity from the employer to notice their mistakes in such a situation, not only blaming the employee for not meeting expectations.
- In the case of the employer himself, ambition, loss of higher salary are at stake… And the belief that they had failed.
Interestingly, you yourself call it a ‘degradation.’ Perhaps it’s the right word – because it positions the employer in the role of the punisher and the employee in the role of the punished, at least that’s the connotation of the organizational bureaucracy. Perhaps it would be better to change the allocation decision.
Your and the employee’s joint decision was very mature. In this situation, it is worth it for the employee to know that this does not shut the way to further development, perhaps in a different direction. In this particular situation, the career path simply did not work.
– Bartosz Gayer, Financial Director at Karolla Family Sp. z o.o.
Szymon Janiak is an investor and a business-driven Managing Director at czysta3.vc, a Venture Capital fund located in Poland. He has over 10 years of experience in the technology sector. Szymon is also a Member of the Supervisory Board at stockbroker Grupa Trinity S.A.
