When a high performer who works for you is actively positioning themselves to assume your role, how do you handle them?

Our reader poll today asks: When a high performer who works for you is actively positioning themselves to assume your role, how do you handle them?

• I try to stretch myself into a larger role to make room for them 56.53%
• I look for similar roles for them elsewhere in the company 27.05%
• I try to slow them down and manage their expectations that they’re not ready for my role 9.66%
• I add more work to their plate because clearly they’re not busy enough 6.76%
• I actively discourage their pursuit of my role 0.00%

Use their growth for your growth. It’s encouraging to see so many of you (57%) seeing a subordinate “stretching up” as an opportunity for you to grow and stretch yourself. The great thing about this dynamic is you can offload simpler work that you find tedious or boring onto their plates. Before you feel bad about doing so, they’ll probably find that work interesting and challenging because they’ve never done it before. This then creates additional bandwidth for you to take on more challenging work (which might be your boss’ simple and tedious tasks that you find challenging or interesting). When people stretch, everyone wins. For those of you seeking other roles for your team members, that’s also a great way to help them grow and build the organization. It gives you an opportunity to share talent and create opportunities for more junior people to grow into that high performer’s role too so when they depart you have a replacement ready to step in.

– 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.