The promotion happened in January. The calendar still looks like December’s.

Promoting the best technician into a management role is the most common capacity decision a growing business makes, and the one most likely to quietly cap throughput.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The promotion happened in January. The calendar still looks like December’s.

A business reaches the point where one person can no longer supervise everyone informally. The obvious candidate is the strongest operator: the estimator whose numbers are always right, the engineer who takes the difficult installs, the consultant clients ask for by name. They are promoted. Six months later the team has grown, the new manager is working longer hours than before, and output per head has not moved. Nobody made a mistake at any identifiable point. What happened is structural, and it repeats across trades, professional services, agencies and field…

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