Should I Demote an Under-performing Employee?

Business leaders often ask me if it is OK to demote an employee. (By the way, promoting someone to a leadership role because they were good at what they did is not usually a great idea). But back to the question at hand. 

Let’s look at some statistics. Of the companies who have demoted employees, here is the reason for the demotion:

As demoting has consequences, make sure you are promoting for the right reasons.  A great salesperson is not always a great sales manager, for example.  When you promote someone who is doing a great job and then have to demote them, you can be losing a great worker as well as the manager.