Hired an internal VP vs an outside VP for our Seattle office and the difference was huge

Honestly, I was team 'promote from within' for years. So when our COO left, I pushed for our ops director, who had been here 8 years. We gave her the role, and within 3 months she was drowning in the strategic stuff - she just couldn't step back from the daily grind. Then we hired an outside VP from a competitor in Portland. He came in with fresh eyes and zero attachment to our messy processes. Tbh, the outsider saved us about 6 months of trial and error. Has anyone else seen this backfire where the internal person just couldn't shift their mindset?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_perry61mo agoMost Upvoted

Fun seeing this after reading that study about how internal hires often struggle with letting go of old habits, it's like their brain is wired to the old job.

maxm501mo ago

Couldn't step back from the daily grind" - that's the whole issue right there. But that's not an internal promotion problem, that's a bad hiring decision. You promoted someone who was good at doing the work, not someone ready to lead it. Two totally different things. If you pick the right internal person, someone who's been pushing for change and thinking big picture for years, they'll hit the ground running way faster than any outsider. I've seen it work plenty of times. The key is knowing who's actually ready for the step up, not just who's been there the longest.