Most managers are lousy, and it’s not their fault.

When a business leader needs to fill a management role, the natural thought is to look at top performers. We pluck them out of their role as individual contributors and put them into a management role as a team lead. We do this because they are good at their job, not because they are good at leading people. This is the problem.

Just because someone is a top performer does not mean they will be a great leader. Leading and performing require vastly different skillsets. In fact, only 10% of employees naturally have the tools and skills to be great leaders. We often pick the wrong person because we are not looking at the right set of skills. We look at their key performance indicators, not their ability to listen to others or deliver critical feedback. We fail to assess their people skills, ultimately setting them up for failure.

What’s the impact of a bad manager?

Having the wrong person in the wrong seat hurts the business on many levels. Not only is the manager being asked to be accountable for the growth, development and success of a team of people, she is also expected to continue performing on the same level herself. The results are often a failure on both ends.

You lose a top performer. You create a team of frustrated employees who are also not performing. The frustration can only last so long before you start to lose employees and it all stems from this single manager promotion.

The impact of picking a bad manager never seems to end for a company. That’s why it’s so critical to get this right.