Managing to Make a Difference

Chapter 40Don't Lead People On

During the course of your career as a manager, you will inevitably have to speak with someone who aspires to a certain role in your organization, even though he or she does not have the natural talent to perform that role with excellence. You are committed to avoiding the Peter Principle. You will not promote people to the level of their incompetence. You should not lead people on. You must have difficult conversations in these instances. But what do you say? How do you help people work through the difference between their goals and reality as you see it? Every situation is unique, so we cannot give you a script. But we can provide an example and give you some guidelines.

Larry's Conversation with Joe

I was consulting for Lewis, a highly successful real estate developer, who was building a five-star resort in Arizona. His general counsel, Joe, was a real estate attorney whose career aspiration was to become a real estate developer himself, a dealmaker rather than “just” the attorney on these deals. Lewis had made a commitment that Joe would become a developer after the completion of this project.

By the time I came into the picture, Lewis had changed his mind about Joe. He did not believe Joe would do a good job as a developer. Lewis was quite pleased with Joe's performance as an attorney, but he thought Joe had an aversion to confrontation that would prevent him from closing real estate deals. He asked me for a second opinion.

I spent a lot ...