Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Promoting is another one of those things that so many managers get wrong. Many times it is done for any reason but the right one.

We could go over a list of all the bad reasons, but it's so long that it would take forever. A better way to look at it is to take the very best reason and focus on that. This is much more productive and simple to understand.
 
What is the one thing that promotion always involves? Dealing with people. The major and greatest reason a person should be promoted is because of their skills in working and dealing with problems as they relate to people.

How do they interact with others under stress? Do they genuinely care about their fellow workers? Are they able to focus on issues while in the midst of continuous interaction with employees? Can they bend but not break? Do others look to them for leadership in their current position even if there is no official title they have?

These are the types of questions that need to be answered before any type of promotion of an employee is considered.

It may be surprising to some that I say this, because many would think knowledge of the job or the department may be more important. Yet anybody can be trained for that. That's the easy part. But being someone that is able to motivate and inspire at team to a high level of performance is far more important than someone that has technical or office politic skills.

Leadership skills are the most important attribute to consider when you're looking to promote someone to an important position in your company. Leadership skills are people skills and nothing else; whether it will entail dealing with employees, vendors, or customers. Keep this in consideration when thinking about the next person to promote into a management level.