This is a list of things a CEO wants managers to do and be like. IMO following these rules will keep you submissive and his castle nice and orderly. Not what you want if you have an ounce of ambition.
To actually survive and excel as a manager you need to play politics and win turf battles. Take on the highest value projects and ship. To get the good projects you'll need to fight because everyone wants them.
TLDR: Adding value to the company is how you get promoted as a manager, not by showcasing talent in a skill.
According to the Peter Principle [1], the entire concept of promotion is flawed in that people get promoted according to their performance in their current role, not the future role. Perhaps, it would generally be better if promotions would require a test run in the new role over a long time period (e.g. a year) before it is set in stone.
Yes - and this is commonly misunderstood. The critical thing in getting a promotion is the ability to demonstrate the capabilities that will be required in the new position. This means actually being able to point at examples of you doing that successfully. This is really different from being brilliant at your current job.
I think you misunderstood the post your replied to. That poster was talking about employees that have been going above and beyond their current role and taking on many/most of the responsibilities that their "promoted to" role would entail. The promotion is just becomes a recognition of the increased capacity that they are currently taking on.
That’s still just one sample outside their expected competence. Ideally, you’ll want to test people over a long time period to take as many samples as possible.
Just because someone is promoted doesn't mean they can't be fired or demoted. What difference is their in your 1 year training period suggestion and simply promoting then firing or demoting in 1 year if things don't work out?
I personally prefer providing opportunities for a gradual increase in responsibilities over outright "here's your new job title and fresh office". Then once they've shown capability with the new roles they get the increased pay and job title. I guess that's the middle ground between the two possibilities you suggested.
Most companies don't demote at all. Even if an employee requests demotion (I have gone through this a few times, where a great technical staffer was promoted to supervisor or manager and then decided later that they really hated the change.), it was always a huge hassle trying to convince HR to accommodate it, and the employee in question had to write a personal letter requesting the demotion and explaining why.)
Does that seem unreasonable? I don't have any experience with such things, but it seems reasonable to me. The company decided you'd be most effective in position Y, so they put you there and gave you a pay/benefits raise, and now you're saying "I'd really like to do position X which is less optimal for the company even though you want me at Y and might/probably have already found someone to do X, and my reasons are A, B, and C".
A letter sounds like the perfect medium to communicate something like that.
Yes, it was the right way to handle it, but my impression when I went through it was that it was completely novel to the HR organization and they were reluctant to agree to demote anyone at all, whether they were requesting it or not.
SOMEONE will end up managing the team that adds value to the company. I think the point is to play the politics & turf battles so that YOU are that someone.
Exactly right. If you feel you're the highest EV manager with the best team then getting that hot project naturally maximises the value for the company. And being the best is useless if you're not perceived as the best, and that takes politics and turf wars.
This is very realpolitik ;) Note that you aren't proposing that you get ahead by bringing the most value to the company, you are saying it's important to be perceived as bringing the most value to the company.
To actually survive and excel as a manager you need to play politics and win turf battles. Take on the highest value projects and ship. To get the good projects you'll need to fight because everyone wants them.
TLDR: Adding value to the company is how you get promoted as a manager, not by showcasing talent in a skill.