In 2018, I sat in a boardroom in Nairobi, staring across the table at a defeated CEO. He had just returned from a disastrous regional performance review. Sales had dropped for the third consecutive quarter.
Staff morale was at its lowest. The board was growing impatient. “But we promoted the most experienced person,” he kept insisting. I asked who. He said, proudly, “He’s been with us 18 years, he knows the company inside out.”
And there it was, the real problem, not the market, not the product, not even the competition, but the real issue was leadership appointments based on time served, not value delivered.
This one hurts because I have seen it again and again. From manufacturing floors in Jinja to financial institutions in Kampala, leaders continue to make the same costly mistake: confusing tenure with readiness.
It’s like confusing a parked car for a reliable one just because it’s been in the garage for years. I remember my late grandfather in Munteme village used to say, “The oldest child isn’t always the leader.
The leader is the one who knows how to move others forward.” He ran a bricklaying team with boys half his age, but it was the one who woke up earliest, organized the tools, and stayed calm even when the rains ruined their work that he trusted to lead. Not the loudest, not the oldest, but the most useful.
“A good leader changes performance. A great leader changes culture. But a poor promotion? It changes nothing and costs everything.”
The tenure trap that strangles transformation
Most HR teams default to one lazy metric, “years of service.” It’s a comfortable lie. Promoting long-servers feels fair. However, it fosters passive leadership, risk-averse decision-making, and stifles innovation. You end up with “managers” who defend old spreadsheets instead of driving change.
You probably know of a company based in Nairobi that made a 22-year veteran the Acting CEO of a once-thriving consumer brand. His first move? He halted every innovation project, slashed marketing budgets, and reinstated rigid clock-in systems.
“Let’s go back to basics,” he told his EXCO. Within 9 months, their digital-first competitors had overtaken them, and staff attrition spiked. Loyalty does not equal leadership. Familiarity breeds complacency.
What you should promote instead
A mid-sized retail chain in Kampala took a bold bet and promoted a 29-year-old branch manager to Head of Customer Experience. Her branch had the lowest refund rate and the highest repeat customers in the group.
She didn’t wait for permission; she fixed problems as they happened. She empowered her team. And she never played politics. Within a year, she had designed a loyalty program that increased customer retention by 31%. That’s what happens when you promote impact.
I challenge you to break the tenure spell.
Want better leaders
a) Audit your last 10 promotions. What got them the job?
b) Introduce an “innovation-readiness Index” in your leadership criteria.
c) Build a “Disruption Bench” of high-potential, non-political performers. Watch what happens. If a long-tenured employee has what it takes to lead in modern times, give them the opportunity.
The Promotion Readiness Grid
Time served doesn’t equal leadership earned. Most promotion frameworks are designed to reward safety, not impact. They select for conformity, not transformation.
That’s why your leadership bench is stacked with survivors, not strategists. You’ve got managers who’ve been there “since the beginning” but haven’t delivered a single system-wide breakthrough.
Others are experts at managing up but terrible at lifting their teams. And somehow, they keep getting promoted. It’s time to burn the old promotion criteria. Not tweak, burn. Here’s what to use instead.
This grid is not a suggestion but a standard. Use it to disrupt the promotion-by-sympathy culture that has plagued East African organizations for decades.
A good leader changes performance. A great leader changes culture. But a poor promotion? It changes nothing and costs everything.
Let’s audit your top 10 upcoming promotions. Who’s building your future, and who’s just been waiting? Book a confidential strategy session at www.summitcl.com. Let’s build a real bench. You owe it to your business.
You don’t build transformation with timekeepers. You build it with disruptors who care deeply about people and outcomes. Every time you promote a “loyal” person who’s afraid to challenge the status quo, you inject fear into your leadership DNA
