Over the years, I've noticed a frustrating trend in leadership and people management. In fact, I don't even think it’s a trend because trends come and go, and this critical example of leadership short-sightedness seems to have been with us forever.

It’s the reluctance of leaders to move people out of roles.

Photograph of a team working in an office

Where does this come from? Personally, I think it’s a hangover from the bad old days when a role had to be filled, a body turned up to fill it, and ‘job done, that's another box ticked and off my to-do list.' After all, if you've got someone in the seat and they're doing the job well, why make things difficult for yourself by moving them on and having to find somebody else to replace them? Leaders are busy people, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Why is it short-sighted? Because two of the essential qualities a leader needs are flexibility and the ability to see the bigger picture. Just because someone’s in a role and they’re really cracking at what they do, it doesn’t mean they’re in the right role for your business or even the right role for them. In my last blog, I talked about the importance of finding your employees strengths and putting them in jobs that play to those strengths, but even when you do, that still doesn’t mean you should keep them locked in that job forever. What other roles could they fill? How could you keep developing them to make them an even bigger asset to your organisation?

An effective leader knows that their business is a living thing. It’s like that gag from the movie ‘Annie Hall’ when Woody Allen says, “A relationship is like a shark; it has to constantly move forward, or it dies. I think what we’ve got on our hands is a dead shark.” Replace the word ‘relationship’ with ‘business’ or 'employee', and you've got the same problem; if either one of those elements isn’t constantly moving forward, or at least showing small, measurable, incremental signs of growth, you’re leading a dead shark. I don’t have to explain why that isn’t a good thing.

What if the person doesn’t want to be moved out of their role?

Every business has its rockstars and its superstars.

The rockstars are the bedrock of your employee base. They’re brilliant at what they do, they’re happy doing what they do, and they’ve got no real desire to do anything else at that time.

The superstars are the employees who are on an absolute growth trajectory. They're ambitious, they don't want to stay in one place for too long, and if they start to feel like they're delivering the goods, but you're still not moving them forwards fast enough, they’ll eventually go somewhere else.

When you’re a leader who’s either fortunate enough to have good people working for you or have made it that way, you’ve got to understand which of those two categories they fall into.

If you've got a superstar in the role, but you're reluctant to move them because they're exceptional at what they do and finding a replacement will be a hassle, be aware that if you don't move them they're eventually going to leave anyway. When they do, you won't only have the hassle of finding a replacement; you'll have the added sting that your superstar employee has now taken their invaluable skills to one of your competitors.

If you’ve got a rockstar in the role, be aware that that can still change. Just because they’re a rockstar today doesn’t mean they’ve got no ambition to move up in the future. We've got a rockstar in our organisation who's shown no interest in stepping up to superstar status. But, when we asked him about it, he said that, after the next two years, when his young children are old enough to go to school, he definitely wants to kickstart his career again. The lesson we learned from that? Never assume that your rockstars will want to stay rockstars forever. There might be a reason you're not aware of why they're happy treading water right now, but in the future, when their circumstances change, they'll be ready to make some waves. As a leader, you've always got to keep the channels of communication open, so your rockstars don't start feeling trapped or taken for granted.

The other thing to say about rockstars is; even if they're happy and have no ambition to do anything else, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start nudging them out of their comfort zone if there's another role you know they'd excel at. Once again, communication is key. Suppose they're doing an awesome job, and it's evident that moving them into another role (even if they’ve got the skills) will make them so unhappy it will negatively affect their performance or even prompt them to resign. In that case, it makes sense to leave them where they are. But, if after talking with them you get any sense that all they need is a gentle push in the right direction, dig deeper to find out what that push is and then apply it. Often, all it takes to put a reluctant rockstar on the superstar ladder is a bit of encouragement.

What if an employee is only performing their role well enough to stay under the radar?

This kind of employee isn't a rockstar; they're doing as much as they need to do to have an easy life until something better comes along.

Deciding whether or not to move this kind of employee into a different role can be tricky for a leader because if the person is doing their job adequately, why not save yourself the headache and leave them there? If they're not committed to your business, they'll eventually move on somewhere else anyway; why go to the trouble of transferring them into another position?

But think about it this way; if they're doing what's required of them and not slacking or giving you any signs that they're a bad employee who couldn't care less, moving them into a new role might be just what they need to get them motivated. If that happens, you'll get more out of them, they'll stop being complacent, and it will be worth finding someone else to fill the job they're currently in.

It all goes back to what I mentioned earlier; just because someone's in a role doesn't mean they're in the right role for your business or even the right role for them.

Never be reluctant to move people out of roles because, nine times out of ten, your business will benefit from it. Having the confidence to make that kind of decision is what being a leader is all about.