Great leaders cherish their star employees. We spend so much time lamenting the frustrating, angst-inducing employees that it’s a breath of fresh air to have members of your team that are clearly rising stars. In turn, we have an obligation to invest in them. Many will follow a traditional leadership track, building the necessary experience to become people managers.

But sometimes you’ll have a talented team member who is terrible at working with others. The person who doesn’t have the emotional intelligence (or desire) needed to be in a formal leadership position. These otherwise excellent employees are at their worst when put in positions to manage others.

You need to consider if this employee could excel as an individual contributor instead of as a people manager. Many larger companies have specialized roles carved out for individuals that are exceptionally talented, but who don’t have the gift for people management: project managers, trainers, technical experts, etc. Find impactful roles that add value and provide career development outside of the traditional leadership track.

What’s realistic within your company?

What sort of roles does your company have for people that are strong contributors but shouldn’t be directly supervising a team? If you’re not sure, talk to your HR team or senior leadership. If there aren’t any obvious roles in your department, there may be other departments where a position could be carved out.

Ask the employee what their aspirations are

Do you know what this person’s long-term goals are? What path do they see themselves on? It could be that no one has ever believed in them enough to ask, so they’ve never thought about it. They might even tell you that they want to be a people manager like you (even if they have zero proficiency in working with others). Don’t be surprised if this person doesn’t profess they want to be an individual contributor, they likely have no idea that it’s a viable growth path for them. Someone may want growth, but have little idea what it actually looks like or what options might be open to them.

When broaching the idea of being an individual contributor to the employee, give them context for what type of work they might excel at and help them understand what a path might look like for them. Explain the opportunities that might be available at your company. See if it’s something that they’re interested in and seems meaningful to them.

Set aside specific work and goals for that employee

Once you and your employee are on the same page, try to carve out tasks and responsibilities for them that fit their aspirations. Can your employee take the lead on record-keeping, ordering, inventory, workflows, or other support tasks? What are their key talents? How can you challenge them in a way that a) they find meaningful, b) helps the department, and c) encourages their growth?

Ensure their compensation reflects their contribution

Obviously, if your employee is now contributing more than the average person, they should be compensated accordingly. Again, talk with your HR team or senior leader about compensation considerations. Perhaps they could be paid as a team-lead for their new responsibilities. If possible, formalize their new job duties as an addendum to their job description (with stipulations that they remain in good standing, etc.). The more structured and formal you make the process, the more real it will feel to you and your employee.

It takes years to learn that “growth” looks different for different people. No two people will follow the exact same path to success, so development plans need to match the individual’s personality and natural skills. Once you find a suitable path for one individual contributor, you’ll see more for others. You’ll have flexibility distributing work in your team, realizing people can grow laterally as well as vertically. You’ll challenge employees to take control of their own development. While there are many organizational roadblocks to getting promoted up, there are surprisingly few for growing out, leaving ample room for employees to broaden their skills within the same role.

Good luck out there.

-Patrick

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