How to help your team grow when there are no promotions available

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Welcome to the Safe Space – where managers can share their issues, and gain advice and support from our =mc Learning consultants.

Here at =mc, we encourage everyone we work with to get in touch if they’ve got a management challenge on their mind. In this regular feature, we share some of those challenges, and the advice our consultants gave in response.

What’s the issue?

Hello =mc! I manage a team of two in a small, busy education charity, and I’ve hit a wall. One of my team has been with us a couple of years and is now excelling in every part of their role. Understandably, they’d like a pay rise or a promotion. But like a lot of small charities right now, that’s just not possible. I can’t create a new role, and I’m not going anywhere either, so there’s nowhere for them to move up to.

Until now, there’s always been something new for them to work on. Now that they’ve mastered it, I feel stuck. I really value them and don’t want them to lose momentum, or worse, look elsewhere. I still want to keep them motivated, growing and excited about their work, I just don’t know how, when I’m out of ideas and options. Please help!

What Vanessa says:

Hey there, thanks for writing in. This is a challenge we hear from managers across the sector, especially at the moment. As a manager, it’s natural to feel responsible for your team’s happiness, and that can weigh on you. So it helps to focus your energy where it can actually make a difference. I often turn to Stephen Covey’s Circles of Influence which sits in Habit 1 from his renowned book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It prompts you to look at your situation and ask: what can you control here, what can you influence, and what’s simply out of your hands? You can’t control the lack of career pathways at your organisation, and it’s worth remembering that your team member’s development belongs to them, not you. What you can control is how you show up for them. You can offer honest, supportive conversations about what their next step might look like. That’s where you can genuinely influence how they feel about their role and their future at the organisation.

What Philly says:

Great advice there Vanessa! Adding to the thinking around what’s in your control and what’s not… You said you’re out of suggestions, so perhaps it’s time to stop trying to solve this yourself. As managers, we naturally look for ways to develop our teams ourselves, and it sounds like you’ve done a brilliant job getting them to where they are. Now might be the time to hand some of that thinking back to them, through a proper coaching conversation. Ask open questions and really listen. Not to solve it for them, but to understand what’s behind their request for a promotion or pay rise. Is it recognition? Money? A new challenge? A simple question like ‘what would success look like for you in two years’ time?’ can open up more than you’d expect. Once you know their real ‘why’, you’re in a much better position to help.

What Leonard says:

Hi Manager, once you understand what’s driving them, sit down together and build a development plan around it. You may not be able to offer a promotion or pay rise right now, but development means far more than that. Agree clear goals, how you’ll both know they’ve been met, and what support they’ll need along the way. Get creative: training is great (we would say that!), but around 70% of learning happens on the job, so think about stretch opportunities too. Could they mentor another team member, work with a different team for a while, or represent your organisation at a sector event? Any of these can offer fresh challenge, recognition and a real sense of progress, without needing a new job title. In terms of training, ask what skills are they interested in developing? Are there courses they could do to build those skills? Review the plan together every few months, so it stays useful rather than gathering dust in a drawer.

What Rachel says:

It’s great to hear you have such a high-performing team member, a lot of managers would love to be in your position! One thing worth watching, is that it’s often our best people who are most at risk of burnout. They’re capable, they want more responsibility, and so they can end up taking on more and more, simply because they can. That doesn’t always mean they should. Keep having regular conversations about workload, not just ambition, so you can check the stretch they’re taking on is manageable, not overwhelming. What’s right for them can shift over time too, depending on what else is going on in their life, so it’s worth asking regularly: how are they feeling, what’s going well, and what support do they need right now?

What Yvette says:

Hi Manager, all great advice above! Coming back to what’s in your control, as Vanessa said: don’t overpromise. Be honest about what’s genuinely available to them at your organisation. Your job is to keep them as engaged and motivated as you can, for as long as you can, but it’s okay if that isn’t forever. If you support them well and treat them with respect, they’ll leave as a champion of your organisation, and they’ll carry on contributing to the wider charity sector wherever they go next. Some people even come back later, bringing new skills and experience with them once the right opportunity comes along.

What’s next?

If you’d like support developing people in your team, take a look at the Advanced People Management programme. It’s designed for experienced managers who want to refine their skills and discover how to lead their team to even greater results. It contains modules on coaching skills and creating development plans amongst other areas. You’ll leave with a clear vision of what you want your team to achieve and how to get them there.

For team members where management skills are something they’d like to explore (even when a management role isn’t currently available), the Aspiring Managers can be a great development opportunity.

You can also contact us online or call 074 3690 3103 to talk through a similar challenge of your own.

Finally, if you’re facing a challenge you’d like advice on in the next Safe Space, email us at safespace@managementcentre.co.uk. We can’t promise to publish every request we receive, but we will always reply with some advice of our own.