When Diligence becomes a stumbling blockMary is 48, a single mother who worked herself through elementary school, to a masters degree at age 45, her aim is to make it to the top, and for her, the only way to do that is to be an outstanding employee, exceeding all of her set targets and being the main contributor of growth to her department.

She’s spent 30 years of her life with this organization, and has always held a candle to her peers in her office, on countless occasions; she was nominated for the best employee award and often gets adjudged as such, albeit with no financial remunerations. She’s proven to be a leader by effectively leading her division to exceed their target when her boss, took a two year leave from official duty to pursue his master’s degree program.

Then the big opportunity came, there was a managerial vacancy to be filled, and amongst those available, she was the most qualified, she saw the job profile as the perfect reflection of her profound capabilities, and therefore applied to be considered for the position.

She attended the interview and excelled, but then, the interview panel had one final requirement, to get that clearance from her divisional boss, the last man to give his “pass” for this diligent lady to move one step up in fulfilling her live long ambition and contributing in a bigger capacity to the growth of an organizations she’s spent all her working life in nurturing.

Her boss did not mince words at all with the interview panel, “Mary is my most diligent staff”, he stated and then continued; “and her contribution to the progress of my division is inestimable. Honestly, her departure will be inimical to the success of my department, Please find someone else to fill the vacant role, for cannot let her go!”

The opening narrative is not the product of some wishful imagination, and that was not the first time Mary was denied an opportunity to progress by her own boss. And this is also not an isolated case; it pervades the entire corporate society and leaves one wondering what it takes to climb up the corporate ladder with someone in the frame of Mary’s boss as your superior

It is understandable that managers will want to keep their key staffs so as not to jeopardize the performance of their teams, but when such decisions leads to the outright denial of a subordinate the opportunity to build his/her career, then its raises more issues than one can fathom.

Flipping on to the other side of this situation reveals a more disturbing situation. Why will the progress/departure of one individual derail the collective success of an entire department? Is there a case of concluding that the manager failed to carry out a proper performance assessment of his team over the years and as such has superintended over an imbalance team? Shouldn’t managers be more involved in developing their teams such that the burden of success is evenly distributed among the team members?

In my humble opinion, any such excuse to deny a diligent and hardworking staff of his/her progress in an organization should be seen as an indictment of the managerial capabilities of the boss and not necessarily a case of pragmatism.

Leadership should not always be the case of influencing a followership; Leadership should also be about grooming leaders, replicating your leadership abilities in your followers. It should be about identifying strengths and weaknesses in your team and helping your followers optimize their strength bias whiles improving on their weakness.

Quite obviously, super achievers will exist in every team, but should they be seen as a tool only for the accomplishment of key KPI by their superiors? Should hard working and diligent employees exist only to help their superiors meet their targets, Should it be the case that these high flyers should have no other ambition of their own aside helping their superiors achieve his target? To which any attempt to progress in the same institution is met with the same response Mary got from her boss, leaving them with only one option. Resign from their current jobs and move to a different institution and pray they don’t meet a boss with twin-like traits like their immediate past superiors.

This situation has weakened rather than strengthened the employee retention efforts by most organizations, most key staffs leave after its become obvious that they exist only to do their superiors bidding with no clear efforts from their leaders in seeing them progress in these organizations, such departures are often marked with bitter feelings and resentment by the departing staff, recounting to as many as would care to listen how their own bosses torpedoed their promotion and elevation.

The time is right for organizations to delink recruitment and employee promotion from the core operational mandates of divisional heads, key measurable performance targets must be set and adhered to, system must be put in place to reward hard work and diligence without resorting to the overused cliché of “we need the final approval of your boss in order to carry this through”.