Coping with and managing the agony and ecstasy of annual promotions

IN the early years of my leadership career, an event that often left me in a state of trepidation was the annual promotion cycle.

- By Ronnie Peiris

It was not the mechanics of the review process or the substance of the discussions themselves that gave rise to such anxiety. It was the dispirited office atmosphere that inevitably followed once the announcements were made and the letters were sent. For a brief, intense period, the office was polarised. A small, joyous cohort of winners basked in well-deserved recognition while a much larger group, the crestfallen majority, was left grappling with the distinct feeling of having been passed over. Given that both the winners and the losers were wonderful, loyal, and committed employees, the sight of the many sad faces was not my cup of tea.organisational acknowledgment that the employee is equipped to manage a fundamentally more complex, valuable, and demanding set of duties. Therefore, to promote an individual without a corresponding elevation in the fundamental job architecture is to dilute the currency of the title, creating systemic inefficiencies and confusing the very definition of career progression.

Promotions driven by factors outside of expanded scope such as rewarding loyalty or years of service create organisational dysfunctions that are far more costly than the temporary goodwill they might generate. Throughout my long career, I have observed this damage manifesting in three critical forms: the devaluation of meritocracy, the structural application of the Peter Principle, and pervasive financial and cultural inefficiency.