Promotions - Can they ever be fair at all?

Just browsing, i found this blog that argues whether tenure/experience based rewards/promotions are fair and sustainable. Interesting one and it also got me thinking...so here comes a little from my experience -

To promote someone, there has to be the clichéd 'Business Need' (which is sometimes preferentially created in the face of a threat!) and there has to be the more clichéd 'Experience' (you have talked at length about this). And as rightly proposed, then comes the ‘Performance’ debate. It is only fair to say that in most cases, it takes more than performing well to be a good manager and be worthy of promotion.

Let me illustrate with an example of team in a software development firm -

I once had a colleague who realized that he was ‘Manager Material’ very early in his career. He tried to reach that goal by grabbing and sticking to managerial work and by sharing a lot of smokes with influential people. He was totally into networking and making contacts and sometimes into many of those initiatives that are just there for the sake of having some. Not to mention, he repelled all the regular work that the others of his level were doing.

He was an eye-sore to his team, but strangely, the management liked him! ( for doing their work?!) and promoted him. Here is what happened –

1.Everyone in the team felt cheated, they thought they were the ones doing the work, their performance measurement stats were good. But someone who was just fooling around gets promoted because he can just ‘act’ managerial. Fair? No.
Motivation levels of everyone spiraled down to the ditches.

2.The Manager Material thought that if he wanted to become a manager faster, he had to start behaving like one. Smart? Yes. But he totally ignored the fact he cannot be accepted as a manager unless he really earned it.

3.Management thought that they have found the right fit in our guy and according to them, they were setting a good example by promoting someone who takes initiative to network and do managerial tasks and think all is well with the world.

The Result?
It should be easy to guess what happens to this team with a delusional manager, members that lack motivation and big bosses who are oblivious to the micro team dynamics.

Although everyone started off with an agenda of their own, the big bosses failed to manage expectations in the following ways
1.They let the team believe that if one does well as a developer, he should be rewarded with a promotion to be a manager
2.In spite of point 1, they promoted someone who just wants to be a manager without being a developer at all.

Sounds not too far from ridiculous, but a lot of promotions happen this way!

Thankfully not all was wrong with the world -
I once met another guy in a client workshop who introduced himself like this – “I am from the ‘ABC’ team, we are a team of 8 developers currently working with XYZ client. I also have the additional responsibility of managing and sharing the status of our activities with the client”.
How clean is that!! He knew exactly what his place was and he didn’t think being a manager was any more glorified than being a developer. He treated it as additional responsibility and that is the attitude that people appreciate. The right attitude along with his expertise and the willingness to do what everyone in the team was doing made him the favorite in his team.

While experience and performance may denote all the good things, it should also be seen that it takes a real leader to be a good manager. The key is to find someone who is an expert in his job, but also has the natural instinct to lead a team. In most cases, such people (if you have them at all), come through as leaders who are well accepted by their teams, sometimes even nominated because the team believes that this person knows enough to get them through a tough situation.

I wish they made more of the second type than the first! :)