For decades, “promote from within” has been celebrated as a hallmark of strong company culture. It shows loyalty. It rewards tenure. It signals to employees that there’s room to grow.
Working Americans are most interested in a training pathway that results in advancement, certifications, and promotions according to our 2025 Workforce Trends in Golf Study.
On the surface, it feels like a win-win. But beneath that shiny surface, this “best practice” often backfires—and it’s quietly killing teams.
When organizations promote from within without preparing employees for leadership, what they’re really doing is:
- Promoting technicians into leadership with zero training
- Rewarding tenure over capability
- Elevating people who were great at doing the job, but aren’t equipped to lead others doing it
- Creating fragile leadership pipelines built on hope, not design
And when these internal promotions fail—as they often do—the damage is bigger than a single role. You don’t just lose productivity; you burn trust, lower morale, and reinforce the myth that “nobody wants to work anymore.”
Promoting from within can be a best practice—but only if it’s paired with the right support. Without it, you’re not scaling leadership. You’re scaling dysfunction.
The difference-maker? Structured mentorship to guide new leaders. Leadership coaching to build confidence and capability. Clear performance expectations that outline what leadership success actually looks like
If it’s so costly, why do companies keep making this mistake? Because it feels:
- Safe: “They know the culture.”
- Fast: “We don’t have time to search.”
- Cheap: “We can pay them less than an external hire.”
- Easy: “We don’t have a bench, so let’s just move the next person up.”
But safety, speed, and savings are short-lived if the promotion derails the team.
The real consequence? Poorly prepared internal promotions carry heavy costs.
High failure rates among new leaders. Stalled or regressed departments as teams struggle under weak guidance. Micromanagement, conflict avoidance, and burnout from unready leaders. Crushed morale (“He got promoted just because he’s been here longest?”. Attrition of top performers who no longer trust the systems
Sounds familiar, right?
What great leaders do instead isn’t abandoning internal promotions. It’s redesigning them:
- Create a Leadership Readiness Scorecard → not everyone is promotable; filter for readiness.
- Pair promotions with coaching & onboarding plans → don’t just promote, prepare.
- Build a pipeline, not a backfill list → identify and invest in future leaders early.
- Normalize external leadership hires → you’re not betraying your team by upgrading leadership.
When done right, internal promotions are powerful. When done poorly, they’re toxic.
Promoting the wrong person to the right role is worse than not hiring at all. You don’t just inherit their gaps—you scale them.
Companies don’t fail because they promote from within. They fail because they treat leadership like a reward for loyalty, instead of a responsibility that requires preparation.
The bottom line: Don’t just fill seats. Build leaders.
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About The Author
Tyler Bloom is the leading expert on workforce development in the golf and private club industry. He has worked with hundreds of leading golf and private clubs in the United States including The PGA of America, Top 100 golf courses, public, municipal to professional sports teams, universities, and national historic landmarks.
As a talent management and consultation executive, he leverages deep relationships locally, regionally, and nationally to help businesses secure and develop premier talent.
His insights have been featured by Golf Digest, USGA, Boardroom Magazine, Club+Resorts, GCSAA, SFMA, PGA of America, CMAA, and British International Greenskeepers Association.
Are you ready to build a top-performing team that drives results? Our proven framework, methodologies, and implementation is based on our personal track record of developing world-class teams. In addition to talent acquisition, we provide leadership development and ongoing consultative services for the golf course and club industry. Our team has personally coached and mentored dozens of future golf course superintendents across the United States.