A key factor in any business’s growth is having a stable, competent team that evolves together. Building such a team takes careful planning.
As a manager, you often face the dilemma of balancing an employee’s desire for career advancement with the organization’s needs. It can be tempting to grant promotions or team changes when employees ask, but often, decisions driven by personal ambition over readiness can lead to bigger problems.
A manager’s role is not to make people happy at all costs but to ensure their growth aligns with the company’s trajectory.
Here I share some of my learnings over the years about managing teams’ expectations regarding career growth and the risks of being too accommodating with employees’ unsustainable desires.
The Manager’s Role in Guiding Career Growth
Managing talent involves more than meeting immediate employee expectations; it requires a focus on long-term success, both for the individual and the team. Promotions or role shifts made too soon, or without the right preparations, can destabilize an otherwise healthy work environment and harm company results.
A manager’s role is to guide—and that often means frustrating people who, for various reasons, feel entitled to a faster track. It’s not an easy stance, but we’re doing employees a disservice if we accommodate every request based on desire rather than readiness.
Managers also shouldn’t fear that someone might leave if they don’t get the promotion they’re pushing for. I’ve learned that if a person’s development isn’t aligned with the opportunity they’re seeking, it’s better to let them go rather than risk the harm of an unsustainable promotion.
Additionally, moving employees between teams should be based on competence first, not just trust. While you might trust someone deeply in one role, it doesn’t mean they’ll perform just as well in another. I’ve learned this the hard way, costing sometimes years. Trust alone isn’t enough; competence has to lead the way, though ideally both are present.
Finally, I’ve learned to be cautious about employees who insist they’re ready for the next step. People sometimes say what they think we want to hear out of fear of disappointing us—but a manager needs to make decisions based on an objective assessment, not merely on assurances from employees.
A stable, well-aligned team is critical to business growth. As a manager, it’s tempting to hold on to talented employees by shifting roles or boosting their salaries when they request it. But this approach can backfire.
I’ve been in a position where we modified an employee’s role, hoping it would make them stay. The result? The team dynamic suffered, the employee underperformed, and eventually, we had to let them go.
These are hard lessons, but they underscore the importance of sticking to long-term thinking and remaining consistent with your performance and skills assessment. That’s a manager’s job—when employees are ready or nearly ready, a move makes sense. If not, it can hurt their career more than it helps.
The Pitfalls of Career Decisions Driven by Short-term Gains
Career choices made on impulse, driven by desires for quick promotions or higher pay, often create more challenges than solutions. I’ve seen it happen often—employees make jumps for early promotions or better pay, and while it feels like progress initially, they quickly realize they’re out of their depth.
One common problem I’ve observed is that competitors often hire junior employees and immediately promote them to senior roles just to fill positions. I’ve even had junior team members hired by competitors for senior positions!
As a manager, it is incredibly frustrating to watch talented people leave your team, knowing they’re making a decision that will hurt them in the long run. They’re taking on responsibilities they’re not ready for, and it’s tough to see them struggle when they could have thrived by staying on a more gradual growth path.
This practice not only sets up these individuals for failure but also creates a bigger problem for the industry as a whole. In ecosystems with a shortage of seasoned professionals, labeling someone as “senior” when they’re not truly ready for that role dilutes the meaning of seniority. “Sr” doesn’t mean “Sr” anymore.
This can lead to mismatches in expectations, cause friction within teams, and slow down the development of actual skills. It’s a dangerous trend that harms the growth of both individuals and the broader professional ecosystem.
In one situation, a team leader approached me to discuss a key team member who had received a job offer elsewhere—one that included a promotion but at the same pay. The leader was considering matching the offer with a raise and promotion, hoping to keep the person from leaving. But the bid for promotion was inconsistent with their performance and skills. So, I immediately advised against it, explaining that leaving for that role was a mistake for their growth.
As managers, we need to stay consistent and coherent in assessing performance and skills, making tough calls when needed. Sometimes the right choice is letting a person go, especially if their ambitions are on a collision course with the organization’s direction.
How Managers Can Foster Long-term Growth Instead of Immediate Gratification
As a manager, your focus must always be on the bigger picture. You should foster a culture that values steady, sustainable growth over short-term wins. Objective criteria like readiness, alignment with business needs, and skill development should be the foundations for any decision related to promotions or team changes—not just an employee’s request.
I once faced a situation where an employee was being courted by another company with the promise of a higher salary. Fearing their departure, we adjusted their position within the company to match their pay expectations.
It seemed like a win at the time, but in the end, it turned out to be a mistake. The employee wasn’t ready for the new responsibilities that came with their promotion, and the entire team’s performance suffered as a result. Eventually, we had no choice but to let them go. It was a painful but valuable lesson in resisting the urge to make hasty decisions to accommodate individual demands.
Managers should instead offer employees alternative pathways to growth. Consider assigning them new projects, giving them leadership opportunities within their current role, or offering mentorship. These methods give employees the sense of progress they seek while ensuring that promotions or team changes happen at the right time.
Managing Employee Ambition Without Sacrificing Organizational Goals
Supporting employee ambition is important, but it’s equally important to ensure that their goals align with the organization’s vision. Employees often see promotions or pay raises as the only markers of success, but as managers, we need to educate them on the importance of being prepared for those next steps.
Good management is about finding the right balance. You need to be able to tell an employee “not yet,” and explain why it’s in their best interest to wait. At the same time, you should offer them the tools and opportunities to prepare for that next step. Lead projects, mentorship roles, or new responsibilities are great ways to challenge employees while keeping them grounded in their current role.
At the end of the day, a rushed promotion or a role change that doesn’t align with the company’s needs can do more harm than good for both the employee and the business. It’s crucial to make these decisions with a focus on long-term growth rather than immediate satisfaction.
The takeaway is: it’s way harder to be a good manager than most people think.
A good manager isn’t someone who says “yes” to every employee request. Instead, it’s someone who understands what the employee needs to grow, even when that means making tough decisions, having difficult conversations and being less “likeable”.
The role is sometimes frustrating — you invest in someone, guide them, and then see them jump to a role they aren’t ready for, knowing how much better they could have become with just a little more patience.
It requires telling employees they’re not ready for that next step, or even recognizing when their ambitions no longer align with the company’s direction. It’s a challenging balance, but it’s the key to building a stable, competent team that grows together—and that’s what drives a business forward.