Is Your Employee Ready to Lead Their Peers? Here’s How to Tell

0:00 – The Hidden Risk of Promoting a Peer Into Leadership 

0:45 – How to Spot the #1 Mistake Leaders Make When Promoting from Within

1:30 – The Simple Interview Technique That Reveals Who’s Truly Ready to Lead A Team Through Change

5:10 – A 3-Step Process to Evaluate Internal Candidates Fairly (and Win Team Buy-In)

7:30 – How to Save Months of Time, Build Trust, and Set Your New Leader Up for Success

Get Your FREE Peer-to-Leader Interview Guide

Is Your Employee Ready to Lead Their Peers? Here’s How to Tell

Promoting someone into leadership is never simple. Done right, it builds trust and strengthens the team. Done wrong, it creates resentment and drama that can take a long time to repair.

Too many managers assume that strong performance equals strong leadership. But leadership is not a reward for doing your job well—it’s an entirely different role with its own skill set. The good news? You don’t have to rely on guesswork when deciding who’s truly ready.

Why Promoting a Peer Into Leadership Can Make or Break Your Team

One of the hardest calls for any manager is whether to promote a strong performer into a leadership role—especially when that person will be managing their former peers.

Yes, promoting from within has real advantages. But it also carries risks. Teams may assume that nothing will change. They may expect the new leader to stay “one of them,” overlook mistakes, or avoid holding boundaries. 

Most interviews only test technical skills or past performance. What’s missing is the chance to see how the candidate will actually show up as a leader in front of their peers—because it’s the interpersonal dynamics, not technical skills, that will fuel their success or derail it.

Linda’s Story: When Strong Performance Isn’t Enough

I once coached a leader, let’s call her Linda, who had a supervisor role open for months. The team was starting to fall apart without steady leadership.

She had three strong internal candidates. But she was worried. This team had a history of resisting change—even when they'd been invited to be part of it. Promoting the wrong person could fuel even more drama at work.

And because none of the candidates had leadership experience, she couldn’t rely on the usual behavioral questions like, “Tell me about a time when you led a team through change.” They had no stories to pull from.

The Unusual Interview Technique That Reveals True Readiness

I told Linda about an uncommon interview technique I’ve recommended to my leadership coaching clients over and over again, to identify the best candidate and prepare teams for change. Instead of asking for past examples that don’t exist, give each candidate a case study and have them present in front of their peers.

A peer-to-leader interview presentation has many benefits, but the main purpose is to reveal how each candidate would actually lead their peers. It also levels the playing field and gives the team confidence in your final selection, because they get a first glimpse of their former peer's leadership in action.

A 3-Step Process to Evaluate Candidates Fairly

Here are the three steps to an effective Peer-to-Leader Interview Presentation:

1. Choose the change. Pick a real but simple change you expect the new leader to implement in their first 90 days. If you know a change is coming that the team is likely to resist, use that one—even if it won't be implemented within 90 days. It will reveal who has the courage to lead through pushback and signals to the team that the change is actually going to happen.

2. Help candidates prepare. Provide every candidate with the same advance notice and clear guidance so they’re not caught off guard. The goal is not to see who panics, but to understand how they think about the change and what kind of leadership presence they'll bring.

3. Evaluate consistently. Use the same scenario and the same criteria for every candidate. That way you can make a fair, meaningful comparison.

Free Resource: The Peer-to-Leader Interview Guide

Want a simple, step-by-step tool to put this process into action? Download my Peer-to-Leader Interview Guide. Inside, you’ll find:

• A ready-to-use structure for the candidate presentation.

• Clear instructions you can share with candidates to help them prepare.

• An evaluation form your interview panel can use to compare candidates fairly and objectively.

This free guide takes the guesswork out of promoting from within and gives you a process you can use again and again.

👉 Download the FREE Peer-to-Leader Interview Guide here

Why The Peer-to-Leader Presentation Matters

When I described the three steps to Linda, she was hesitant at first. Wouldn’t this take too much time? But when we compared it to the energy she was already spending keeping the team afloat, the cost of skipping it was far greater.

A few extra days in the interview process can save months of wasted time if you promote someone who isn’t ready. It also sets up the new leader for success and signals to the team that change is not optional.

The Takeaway

When you give candidates the chance to step into leadership during the interview process, you protect your team from unnecessary drama at work, set your new leader up for success, and build trust across the board.

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More Resources

• For individual support, explore Dr. Annie’s Executive Coaching Program

• Download your free guide: Executive Presence Starter Kit 

• Get The Empowered Feedback Toolkit for step-by-step guidance so you can navigate difficult conversations, set healthy boundaries at work, and deliver effective feedback without sparking a conflict.