When Middle Managers and Leaders Don't Sign Up for the Role

There's been an increase in articles about middle leaders and managers who are promoted but don't really want the job. Sometimes they are referred to as "accidental leaders".

It's  common.

The problem is often caused by organizations who want to reward their talented employees,  but the money is not available unless that person is promoted to a leadership and management pay scale.

A key factor is not everyone is cut out to lead people or prepared to do so but they find themselves having to. Turning down the chance of a pay increase is a tough decision for a lot of us.

It's a tricky one because good organizations want to recognise and reward their best performers . But get it wrong and the damage can be significant.

For example, you will be taking a high performer away from what they are good at. Can they be replaced by someone as good? Difficult in the short-term, that's for sure.

Then what about the damage caused by their inadequate leader and manager skills?

This can wreck team performance, and cause resentment among team members.

How can we sort this out?

Find out if there is any way of transferring funds from the leadership and management budget to enhance a higher band of non-management workers. Okay. I can hear the howls of laughter! But has anyone asked? Or are expectations of this too low- do you know?

Avoid it in the first place

• Check if potential leaders are comfortable with the expectations of their new role.

      e.g. Will they be confident about dealing with conflict or delegation?
If they aren't then it's a red flag. Will a leadership preparation programme be the answer, or is it deeper than that?

​What if they are already in the job?

• Identify  training that fits their specific needs. Again, will this be enough?
• Don't overload them with too many direct reports; let them focus on what they're good at. Could this be retaining a good part of the week still carrying out frontline work and cutting back on the leadership side?

Watch out here. This often leads to a massive overload if not managed carefully.

Recognition without being promoted to manager: In larger organisations it might be possible give these star performers a training role across other departments and branches.
This is proper Change Agent work.

This will be enhanced by sending them to national conferences. Maybe even international ones. They are your organisation’s representatives. They can have a prestigious title like Global Ambassador.

The next impact will be allowing them to feedback to key personnel about the conference.


As usual, we are not trying to give a list of perfect answers. These are starting points for discussion and thought.

​If none of our ideas will work for you, that's cool. But let's modify and adapt to your workplace.