Situation: A CEO wants to promote a key employee from rainmaker to manager. This will not involve a change in expectations or metrics for either the new manager or the employees who will report to her. However, there needs to be more forcefulness and clarity on what needs to be accomplished, both for the new manager and her team. How do you shift a key employee from rainmaker to manager?

Advice from the CEOs:

• Renegotiate expectations of the two employees who will now report to the new manager. This doesn’t change the team goal, but will give all members of the new team measurable objectives that will enable them to contribute. An example of a measurable and achievable objective may be leads generated for them to close.
• Don’t just measure activity – measure the outcomes that the team’s activities produce. For the new manager, create a 90-day plan with specific, SMART objectives, as well as a training schedule that will bring her up to speed with the full organization so that she sees how the pieces fit together and has the opportunity to contribute as she sees opportunity.
• Think about the full process through which the vision will be translated to reality:
  • Vision →
  • Plan →
  • Standards of Performance →
  • Objectives →
  • Evaluate and Monitor
  • With multiple feedback loops between these components

• The key to business development or sales is relationships. Much of the technical aspect of any sale amount to learning the lingo that is involved with the sale.
  • Look at what members of the team can do to build relationships with potential clients.
  • Support them with technical support and teach them about the technical aspects of the business along the way – for example through lunch seminars.
  • The new manager will act as the closer for relationships that the team nurtures and brings to the firm.

[like]