Let’s analyze Tony’s decision about who to promote to captain after Richie Aprile’s untimely (or timely depending on how you look at it) departure created a job opening. Even though Junior supported Ralph and it was well known that Ralph had a solid relationship with Johnny Sack, Tony promoted Gigi, one of his guys. His rationale was that Gigi was a good earner and well respected; he also believed he needed someone he trusted to watch over the Aprile crew. Tony had serious reservations about Ralph, in part because Ralph sometimes failed to keep Tony in the information loop and because Ralph was dealing cocaine and may have been skimming money off the top.
In making this promotion decision, Tony faced a common dilemma: Do you promote a person based solely on his results or do you promote an individual based on his results along with his leadership ability, his values, and what he stands for? As tempting as the "results at any cost" individual is for a results-oriented leader such as Tony, the costs of opting for this type of person can be high. Do you want to communicate to your people through this promotion that the only thing that counts is results? I have worked with many leaders who preach teamwork, cross-boundary behavior and breaking down the silos, and then they promote leaders who are lone rangers and information hoarders. They do so fearing that if they don’t promote earners, they’ll leave.
Tony, though, didn’t struggle with this decision as many business leaders do. Gigi’s values were congruent with Tony’s, and that made his decision easy. Later, when Ralph beat Tracee the stripper to death, Tony told Ralph that this was an example of the type of behavior that prevented him from receiving the promotion to captain.
I should add, however, that making a promotion decision primarily on congruent values also has a potential downside. For instance, it turned out that Gigi’s crew didn’t trust or respect him, and that Ralph had whipped the old Aprile crew into great shape. Ralph’s strong performance and Gigi’s weak one caused Tony to revisit his promotion decision, and he was faced with another dilemma: Should he reverse his old decision and promote Ralph, getting a top earner in place but also risking being viewed as indecisive and dismissive of his cherished values. When Gigi died of a heart attack, Tony had no choice but to promote Ralph for there was no other real successor ready to take on the role.
What we can learn from this decision:
- Values and results are both important factors in promotion decisions. This is another delicate balance for leaders, and a given decision may tip more in one direction than the other, depending on specific circumstances. Tony made a wise decision in adhering to his values in this situation, even though Gigi wasn’t an ideal candidate. Promoting Ralph over Gigi would have sent the wrong message to Tony’s people, potentially destroying the strong code of beliefs and values he’d worked hard to establish. Ideally, Tony would have groomed a candidate for the position with congruent values as well as an ability to earn money and respect from his crew. In most instances, though, leaders need to take both factors into consideration to select the right candidate for promotion.
- Back up promotion choices with supporting actions. Decisions are often only as good as the support that the decision maker gives them. In other words, Gigi might have done a better job if Tony had provided Gigi with some coaching about how to be a good captain and how to handle Ralph. He might have also created some negative consequences for Ralph if he failed to support Gigi. I’ve seen too many leaders make promotion decisions and allow good people to fail because they didn’t provide them with information, coaching, ideas, and other supporting staff to help ease the transition to the new position. Analyzing how and where a new promotee is likely to fail will tell you exactly what you need to do to help her avoid this failure.