For ten years, Ignite CSP has been coaching top-level executives at a big company who are preparing for high-stakes interviews in the process of trying to get an important promotion.

We are really familiar with the interview and promotion process at this company, and we’ve worked with dozens of candidates over the years. They are all very smart, experienced, talented, and ambitious. 

The similarities end there.

Each of these people is wildly different, with strengths and skills and interests and passions that contribute to the health and prosperity of the company. This is a huge advantage for the company—their diversity of experience and talent distinguishes it. The leadership talks about this constantly, and they are aware that their people are their biggest and best resource.

Despite this laudable diversity, each candidate for promotion is required to prove their readiness for the next level in the same way. They all give presentations that are the same length, that cover essentially the same information, and answer similar questions from a panel. Each person has exactly the same amount of interview time.

This seems to me to be a good example of equality versus equity. It’s equal! Every candidate goes through the same process. But just like with, for example, standardized tests, some people are better suited for that specific type of challenge. (And I won’t even get into the unconscious biases that come into play when a variety of people are compared to each other through a formal presentation and panel process.)

In an ideal situation, the interview and promotion process could take the candidates’ differences into account. There would be a way to ensure that each candidate could be heard and evaluated equitably, with a process that allowed the individual to shine. 

Would it require more work on the front end, from the evaluators and from the candidates? Absolutely. But the result would be a deeper and truer understanding of what each person brings to the company, leading to better decisions about who is ready for the next level of leadership, and ultimately better overall outcomes.

What is the promotion process like where you work?