The Reason Not To Promote

A notorious part of Amazon’s promotion process is we have to provide the reason not to promote. I used to hate this part of the promotion document with a passion: why would I have a reason not to promote someone after I have spent weeks or even months to prepare the promotion document for them? If I have a real reason not to promote, why would I start the process from the beginning? Each promotion document will require multiple feedbacks from co-workers. Each feedback needs to have the “Reason not to promote” too. Some feedbacks would just give a general statement: “XXX needs to work on their verbal communication.” Right, we can all be better on our communication. But no, this is not ok. In fact, without a high quality narrative on reason not to promote that has concrete data points, the feedback must be rejected. Why and why? After many promotions I start to realize the value of “Reason not to promote”. First, we must accept we are all mortals and we all have flaws. The reason not to promote forces us to be human, to think hard on the flaws of the candidates, and ask the questions: “How serious are the flaws?” “Can they become showstoppers once the candidates move to the next level?” “Will they grow into bigger problems if we promote the candidates now?” Second, are the candidates aware of their flaws? Self awareness is the start for growth. But more importantly, have they done anything to fix the flaws? Have we, as managers who promote them, done anything to help the candidates address the flaws? Do we have mechanisms to control the blast radius of the flaws? Last, as promotion feedback providers, the reason not to promote forces us to think in 360 ways about the candidates, acknowledging we are all biased by nature, we can never get the whole truth no matter how hard we try. Writing promotion feedback is similar to writing interview feedback. When we evaluate candidates we are looking at a mirror and see ourselves projected on the candidates. The reason not to promote is a reflection on what we might have missed from the candidates, and from ourselves. I’ve done many promotions, approved many promotions and written many promotion feedbacks. I’ve seen good promotions that send the right signal to the candidates, help them get on the virtuous circle of growth and self improvement. But I have also seen promotions that done poorly. The wrong people got promoted to the wrong level, or at the wrong time. The candidates got the wrong signal; they thought they were perfect; they felt more entitled; they felt they should have been promoted earlier; they stopped growing; their egos got bigger from the premature promotion; they became the negative force to people around them, to the organization. Promotion is a double edged sword. To mitigate its dark side the force, do write a reason not to promote seriously.