Promote from within and let someone jump the line when a person already on your team shows the results, behavior and values you want, even without the years of experience a role usually asks for. Then own the risk. Give them heavy coaching, one-on-one time and steady feedback, especially in the first three months.
- Years of experience can mean something, and it shouldn't decide everything.
- Look for results in action, how people treat others, and fit with your core values.
- Promote from within, where you have already seen who someone is.
- Jumping the line is guided. The leader walks back, takes their hand and leads them forward.
What does it mean to jump the line?
Many organizations follow a fixed path for advancement. Two years here, three years there, five years of experience before you can apply. My co-host Arturo Gomez has led teams for 25 years, and he believes that criteria can mean something without dictating your personnel decisions or your succession plan.
Jumping the line means giving a passionate, hardworking person a shot at a role before the traditional timeline says they are ready. For some, it is their Tom Brady moment. Someone goes down, and they finally get the chance to show what they are made of.
Why should leaders be willing to take that risk?
When we recorded this in 2021, Arturo pointed to a Harvard Business Review article about companies losing top talent because they were afraid to make progressive promotion decisions. People left because they felt it was their time.
The labor market was tight, and finding the perfect employee felt like hunting for a unicorn. Arturo kept a sense of perspective about the risk: in most businesses, leaders are not heart surgeons. A promotion that doesn't work out is costly, and it is rarely fatal.
Put your faith in what you see in action.
How do you know someone is ready for a promotion?
Arturo puts a lot of faith in what he sees in action. Results from anyone are attractive. Then he looks at the signals that matter more than a resume.
- Results They produce, and you can see it.
- How they treat people How they treat your guests, customers and teammates. Hard work alone falls short if someone hasn't learned how people need to be treated.
- Effort and curiosity They put in the time to be effective and ask the right questions.
- Energy and values They bring enthusiasm and act on your core values.
I hire the same way. I care about a skill set, fit with our core values and vision, and the ability to communicate. With the right person and the right process, most of business can be taught. Arturo has met people with plenty of experience who were less effective than someone with none.
Should you promote from within or hire from outside?
Arturo is clear on this. He takes these chances on people already inside the organization, because he has validated who they are. He looks at the needs of the business too. Sometimes the business is in a spot where giving someone an unexpected opportunity is the right call.
| Resume first | Potential first | |
|---|---|---|
| What you measure | Years of experience | Results, behavior and values |
| Who you consider | Whoever applies | The shining stars already on your team |
| The leader's role | Approve the promotion | Coach them every step |
| The risk | Losing stars who feel stuck | An investment of time that might not pay off |
What should the first three months look like?
It looks like coaching. Arturo describes a lot of one-on-one time and staying connected through email and text. When something happens that isn't quite right, it becomes a conversation. Coaching continues past the first three months, and it keeps going ten years down the road.
You also have to build the systems first. When I started bringing on new people, everything took longer, because I knew how to do the work better than anyone. I had to invest in systems and processes that let me duplicate each role. If you skip the training, you set up a potential home run to fail. Being willing to get your hands dirty is part of the deal.
It'd be somebody at the front of the line coming back, grabbing this person by the hand and walking them to the front.
Arturo Gomez, Episode 35
What is the leader's responsibility?
You cannot move someone from bar back to general manager overnight and walk away. Leaders who let someone jump the line are there to guide them and invest time and energy until it works. That is the coaching leadership style in practice.
How can an employee jump the line?
The other side matters too. Go-getters can create their own leaps by doing what others won't. One of the people I have mentored landed his dream job at one of the largest sports books in the country. I suggested he start an internal podcast. I had already helped a friend who managed at Yelp create one, because bringing senior leaders on to talk about their success mindset gets you on their radar, even in a company of a thousand people.
Do this today
- Name your next shining stars. List the people on your team who could jump the line, and write down what each one would need to flourish.
- Check your training system. Make sure you could train someone with the drive and the values who lacks the experience.
Listen to the episode
When To Jump The Line
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Questions people ask
Should you promote someone with less experience?
Yes, when they already show the results, behavior and values the role needs, and you are ready to coach them closely. Arturo Gomez has seen people with no experience outperform people with plenty.
How do you support a newly promoted employee?
With coaching. Spend a lot of one-on-one time together, stay connected by email and text, and talk through anything that falls short right away.
What should you look for when promoting from within?
Results you can see, how they treat customers and teammates, the effort they put in, the questions they ask, and how well they live your core values.
Why do companies lose top talent?
One reason is a rigid promotion timeline. Talented people leave when they feel it is their time and the company is unwilling to take a chance on them.
Full transcript
Episode 35: When To Jump The Line
Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, when to jump the line. Arturo, what does this mean? I think it means, you know, for me there's such a, I think, a process that's been built into, I think, the interpretation of how things need to happen in the course of personnel and employees and development.
You know, for me it's always been, there's always been this stigma or this issue with, you have to hire somebody, they have to have five years of experience, or they got to have two years of experience. You know, this criteria to me, it can mean something. I think it's certainly something that shouldn't be just brushed off the table. But I don't think that it needs to be the thing that dictates how your personnel or your succession plan exists within your organization.
And I think it's interesting, as there was a recent article in the Harvard Business Review about how a lot of companies are losing, you know, top talent because they're fearful of making decisions that are going to be probably viewed as progressive. And jumping the line in terms of how they're moving these people up. And people are making decisions to just leave the business and the company because they, it's their time. It's their time to get a shot. It's their Tom Brady moment. Somebody's gotten hurt. It's the opportunity to come in and show what they've, you know, what they're made of. And so I have a, I have a little issue with the way that the process has existed in the past.
And, you know, frankly, I've been a big proponent over the years and certainly now because of, you know, the labor challenges and the way that the, you know, the world is working to, you know, live in a world that may from, you know, the outside looking in, have a little bit more risk in the decisions that we're making in terms of personnel. But, you know, at the end of the day, we're not, we're not, you know, we're not heart surgeons. We're not, you know, we're not, we're not doing things that are going to potentially kill people.
And, and I found some real success with, you know, really diving in and giving, you know, people that are passionate and hardworking a shot and just be willing to invest and to train them. And I think that that's one of the other, you know, bigger kind of components of it. You, if you're not willing to invest, train and get your hands dirty, then you're going to be in a real challenge because right now finding that perfect employee is just, you're looking for unicorns.
Well, right now is an interesting time because there is an opportunity right now for many companies to find this elite top talent because now everyone's starting to say, all right, well, what do I really want out of my life in my job in the people that I'm working with? And so often business can seem like it's supposed to be done a certain way, but I believe one of the things the last year and a half has taught us that you can throw all of that in the trash, that the more nimble and forward thinking that you can be as a business, the better. That's a very big challenge for a lot of companies because they are used to a prescriptive manner of I'm looking for X, Y, and Z out of something.
And as I look at my own hiring and the way that I'm building teams, I'm very much project based in how I do things. I don't care about a resume. I care about a skill set, the way someone would fit with our core values and our vision and their ability to communicate. Because I do believe a lot of things in business can be taught or trained with the right person, with the right process.
But the key is you need to have all of these things in order, in order to make this succeed. Because if you don't have any one of those dominoes, all of a sudden, if you're not training the person, why did this person not succeed? Well, so you really have to think about your own systems and process for if you're willing to take on someone that could be a potential home run, but may not have everything. Do you have the right training in place? Are you willing to put in the time to get them to where they want to go?
Because I know on my end, one of the challenges as a time standpoint as a business owner was investing in my systems and processes that allowed me to duplicate the roles to bring on the new people so that I could scale myself. I knew how to do something and I could do it better than anybody else. But now I'm bringing on this new talent. And anytime you bring on someone new, now it takes more time. And you're like, oh, that's just what is this taking so long for?
But I had to invest in the system and process to allow me to grow to where our vision wants to go. Yeah, I mean, I think there needs to be a system and process in terms of the way that people are brought into the organization, in terms of the way that training is implemented. I do think, listen, the issue right now that we're experiencing is that people want to be the Yankees. They just don't have the salary cap, right?
And it's like, the other thing is that we're in a very pro-employee kind of time right now where the job market is fierce. There's jobs abundant, you know, that where people can go pick up work for really kind of pick and choose their own kind of salary or compensation package. I mean, that's really the world that we're living in right now. And that's across multiple industries.
You know, you're seeing there's such a tightness in labor that these things are existing. And so, you know, this is more, and again, better is not, you know, bigger and better is not always, you know, equal success or does that create, you know, great culture? I think right now, small to medium-sized businesses need to really be looking for things that are really stand out.
Like, how is somebody treating your guests or your customers? Or are they putting in the time to be effective? Are they asking the right questions? Those are the things that I think, you know, are really are becoming very, you know, valuable. Because again, you know, I've met people that have a ton of experience, but they just weren't as effective as somebody who had zero experience, but just was, you know, had enthusiasm and energy and was doing, you know, behaviorally the right things that I think were impacting the business in the right ways. And so, you know, we're experiencing these challenges that we've never seen in the business. And I think that, you know, we have to step away from the belief that the process needs to be as this, you know, previously defined process where you got to spend a year here, two years here, three years here, whatever, you know.
And so, and there's some industries that I think that maybe that process has some weight to it. Obviously, you know, doctors as they get tenured in hospitals that, you know, I think that that makes sense. I think, you know, when you're going to talk about other people that have, you know, trained for many years as certain professionals, but there's also industries, a lot of them that I think right now are in desperate need of employees.
And I think, again, I'm not talking about going to find somebody just off the street. I'm talking that somebody who's already in your organization, somebody that you've already been able to identify that they have tendencies and attributes, the things that you really like that probably stand within these core values that you have as a company. And I think that you need to know when it's time to, you know, push them out of the nest and allow them to jump the line.
And I think one thing that I'd be interested in talking about is we've got when to jump the line, but let's talk about how to jump the line. And I think about one of the guys that I've been mentoring for the last few years who got a job at one of the largest sports books in the United States. And immediately upon getting that job, he was so excited. It was his dream job.
And I'm like, all right, what are you going to do to stand out within this giant company? And one of the things that I recommended to him was to create an internal podcast. And this is something that I had previously done. I helped create and produce a podcast internally for Yelp. One of my friends was a manager there. And I was like, dude, you got to get on the radar of all the senior leadership. How in the world do you do that in a thousand person company? Cool.
Create a platform similar to what we have here to bring them on, talk about their success mindset, how they got to where they are and what they're doing right now. And there's a lot of opportunities out there for people who want to jump the line because a lot of people are going to continue to deal with the status quo and say, you know what, I'm just going to keep moving up this ladder as it's prescribed.
But now all of a sudden, because things are shifting, there's an opportunity for those who are go-getters to create their own leaps within an organization by doing things others don't. And I'm curious your thoughts on that mindset. Yeah, I mean, I think my mindset has always been, you know, I put a lot of faith and belief in what I see in action.
You know, I see when I see results from whomever, to me that becomes a very attractive thing. And so I also, you know, again, I believe in how people interact with other teammates. And those things are very critical. As people ascend to different levels, if you've identified somebody who's super hardworking, but they just don't have an understanding of how people need to be treated, I think that that becomes an issue. But I think, you know, for me, the decision is sometimes based on the needs of the business. Is the business really in a spot where you have to take a potential risk and give somebody an opportunity that you may otherwise would have not contemplated because, you know, they didn't have the resume or they didn't have the years of experience or whatever. So I think that you need to look at other factors.
And I mean, this is a lot easier said than done in terms of you. This isn't something I would suggest people do with people off the street. I'm talking about, you know, people that are already within the organization. And again, you've been able to validate more about who they are. I think the other thing, too, is as leaders, we need to understand that there's a real responsibility when you do this. That you can't just say, hey, tomorrow you're going from, you know, the bar back to the general manager.
Like you have to there's a real responsibility as leaders that we're there to guide and that we're there to invest time and energy into making sure that this thing is is an outcome that has a good outcome because it's also costly to the business if it doesn't work out. So I think there's various signals that people can be kind of, you know, sensitive to in terms of, you know, who should be that next person in line to be able to jump. But I think it's I think it's something that I'm seeing a lot of people talking about certainly right now because because they don't have a choice.
I'm curious from your standpoint on the person that you are given the opportunity where maybe this could be perceived as a risk because they don't have everything. What is the first month to three months maybe look like on your end with this person where they have the opportunity to take this leap and you're willing to give them that in faith?
But what are how are you processing this to try and put them in a position to succeed so that they're just not on an island because there still are things as business owners and leaders that we want to help provide them with to make them or help them succeed. So what's that look from your side of things? It looks it looks like coaching. It looks like it looks like leadership. It looks like, you know, spending a lot of one on one time with them.
It looks like, you know, being connected through various channels, whether it's through email, whether it's through text. It looks like, you know, when you see something occur and it's not exactly as you want it to be. There's got to be dialogue around that. There's got to be again. It's all it's all coaching. But, you know, to me, coaching really never stops. It doesn't stop in the first three months and it doesn't stop in the, you know, 10 years down the road.
I think it's I think there's, you know, there's days that, you know, coaching just just there's a continuity that needs to exist with coaching. And even people that are, you know, feel like they've, you know, they've been there's no more coaching to be done. They're going to go somewhere. They're going to learn something, you know, whether or not you can provide that that learning for them.
And, you know, whether they feel that, you know, the student has now become the teacher, it's there's still going to be a day where they're going to have to, you know, have some awareness about themselves and understand that that coaching and learning is never going to stop. But to me, it's just it's the investment. It's the hard investment.
You know, jumping the line is is something where where if if there was a video to it or if there was some type of visualization, it'd be somebody at the front of the line coming back, grabbing this person by the hand and walking them to the front or walking them to some other position in that line. It's it's not them doing it on their own. It's somebody being completely guided and nurtured along the way. Wow. I absolutely love that.
And I'm just visualizing what that image would look like as it relates to this episode. And let's get to our action item or takeaway in our tour. I think that is it exactly for me. The way that you just so in a crystal clear picture showed me what leadership looks like going from the front of the line to the back of the line and holding that person's hand as they are making their way forward. Man, that is so powerful. What about you?
What's your action item or takeaway from today? I think, you know, again, as you know, we spoke in a previous episode about about getting your hands dirty and investing time in your business. I think I think I think you constantly need to be aware of who the next shining stars are. And I think that you need to have a system in a process to to to to to be nourished and to flourish within your organization.
And I think that you should stop being so afraid of what it looks like or what people will say if this person doesn't have, you know, resume that's 10 sheets long. You know, it's to me. I've seen I've seen a tremendous amount of good effort come from from people that didn't have the resume. I've seen great input or output rather from from people that did have the resume.
I've also seen some disasters, you know, so, you know, your business, you'll you'll get a greater understanding of your business if you're spending time in your business, working on your business. And and and and, you know, we all have a lot of shining stars within within the within our within our four walls. So take advantage of it. And certainly this is a very applicable topic for everything that is going on right now.
And we want to hear from you as it relates to when to jump the line in the systems and the processes and the willingness to take risks. What is this? How does this resonate for you? How does this manifest in your life or business?
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