How would you describe your team members’ expectations on getting promoted?

Our reader poll today asks: How would you describe your team members’ expectations on getting promoted?

• They are frustrated they haven’t been promoted already 23.93%
• They believe they’re ready to be promoted now 20.86%
• They believe they’ll be ready for promotion in a year or less 9.82%
• They think they’re more than a year away from a promotion 7.37%
• They have no idea when or how they’ll get promoted 24.53%
• They expect they’ll never get promoted 13.49%

Providing clarity on promotions. 63% of you report that you’re in a dangerous situation. 24% have people who think they should have already been promoted. They’re a flight risk because they’ll seek a promotion at another company. 25% have no idea when they’ll get promoted. They’re both a flight risk where they’ll go to a situation where there’s more promotion clarity or they’ll lose motivation because they feel like they’re not advancing their careers. 14% believe their job is a dead end. Eventually they’ll leave for somewhere where they can continue to grow. Your job as their leader is to communicate frequently and realistically about promotion paths and probabilities. Don’t sugar-coat it and give them false expectations because that will be even more disheartening when the promotion doesn’t happen. Be explicit about the performance you need to see as well as when opportunities will open up. You owe them that candor and it will help you manage expectations appropriately.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.