Quick Summary
If you’ve been wondering how to get promoted into management, working harder probably isn’t the answer – or at least, it’s not the whole one. Marnie Jones, Director of Talent X and Educate X, has placed talent across 56+ industries and has a front-row seat to what hiring managers are actually looking for. We asked her everything.
It’s one of the most searched career questions for a reason. If you’ve typed “how to get promoted into management” into Google at some point – probably late at night, probably after a performance review that didn’t go the way you hoped – you’re in very good company.
The frustrating part isn’t that the information doesn’t exist. It’s that most of it is vague and hard to apply. Work hard. Show initiative. Be a team player. Sure. But how, exactly?
And why do some people seem to get tapped for leadership while others – often the ones putting in the most hours – keep getting passed over?
Marnie Jones has seen both sides of that question up close. As Director of Talent X and Educate X, she’s spent over 15 years helping companies across 56+ industries hire and develop the right people.
She knows what’s said in the room after the interview. She knows what managers are actually weighing up when a promotion decision comes around.
And she’s seen enough overlooked high performers – and unexpected success stories – to know that the gap between ambition and advancement is almost never about effort alone.
We asked her everything. Let’s jump into it.
What Hiring Managers Really Look For When Filling A Management Role
From your time at Talent X, what do hiring managers actually tell you about what they’re looking for when filling a management position?
“Far more often than not, they are really, really interested in two key things.
One is that they can actually perform and do well, which is not the same as knowledge – and people get this confused. People think that just because you’ve had X years of experience, or X number of certificates or qualifications or uni degrees, that you’ll be good at a job. And it’s not true. That’s why you can have people who are really brand new and really, really good, and people who have been around for 20 years and they’re terrible.
So this is good news, because if you’re a good team member and you’re productive, owners will want you. There’s just a certain way you’ve got to communicate it. But they’re looking for someone who pushes through barriers and is a solution provider. If you are someone who is solution-oriented – when you bring a problem, you also bring a solution. You catch something before it has to be caught. You update them before they have to remind you. You’re proactive. You come up with ideas. You organise things without being asked. All of these things are such huge green flags for owners.”
“And then the other side is your personality. Are you easy to deal with? The biggest things owners need to know is: can I give you feedback? Are you going to roll your eyes? Are you going to be difficult? Are you going to be complainy? Are you going to be toxic or talk behind people’s backs? These things just pull owners out of productive mode and make them really stressed out.
So basically, they’re looking for a high-performance person who pushes through to get results and overcomes barriers – someone who is proactive, easy to work with, and can take criticism.”
How To Know If Someone Is Actually Ready For A Management Role – Or Just Wants The Title
When you’re assessing candidates, how do you know someone is genuinely ready to step into a management role, versus someone who just wants the title?
“Honestly, “ready” is interesting, because I don’t really hire people new into a role. I normally ask for previous things that they’ve done that match up with what a manager could be.
So say you’ve never been a manager – I’m looking for times where you’ve acted as a manager, or you had to step up, or manage a team temporarily, or your manager was sick so you stepped in, or you came up with a new system or way of doing things that was really impressive. I’m like, you sound like you’d be a great manager.”
“I’m looking for how you communicate. Are you confident? Are you humble? Management is really hard, so I want someone who, even though they may never have been a manager, has been put in situations where they had to manage. I’ve never met someone who wants to be a manager who hasn’t been put in situations where they had to manage.
Sometimes I advertise for people who have never been in a management position before – like a construction manager position I advertised recently. And I was like, you’ve basically been a project manager in construction, and you’re ready to be a construction manager where you’re managing other project managers and the whole cohort of work.
The way I advertise it, I’m like, you’ve basically done it before. You’ve had to run things. You worked under people who didn’t give you the title, but you were basically running it. And you’re open to learning, because you know you don’t know everything – but you know you’re going to do a good job, and you just really want someone who trusts you.”
How To Tell If A Candidate Has Taken A Management Role Seriously – And The Signs They’re Not Quite Ready
Can you tell when someone has previously taken a management role seriously? And what does that actually look like in a candidate?
“Honestly, the more serious and better the manager is, the more chill they are. Like, the best managers are the most chill. When you talk to them, they’re like, yeah, I didn’t really know how to do that, I just focused on this. They’re just very in their own skin.
What does it look like? It looks like someone who is humble. They try things, they know it doesn’t work, and they just keep trying more things. It’s not an ego thing. Good managers know how hard management is.
On the flip side, someone who’s not ready for management yet is someone who isn’t a good staff member themselves. If they just want a title, typically they’re not good team members. If you’re a high-performing, productive, amazing team member, you’re going to have more of an understanding of what it’s going to take to manage people, and it’s not going to be an ego-driven thing.”
“So people who I know have potential are great staff themselves – and that’s normally who gets promoted. Owners promote the best staff.
They’re like, well, you’re the best hairdresser, so I’m now going to make you in charge of all the other hairdressers. And this is actually, by the way, a bad thing – because being good at something doesn’t mean you’re good at getting someone else to be good at something. That’s a really different skill set.
I might be great at cutting hair, but maybe I’m a terrible mentor. I’m a control freak, so I don’t want to hand things over. I’m bad at delegating.
When someone’s not ready for management, I’d say it’s if they’re not good at training – because management isn’t about doing it, it’s about getting someone else to do it. If they can’t face conflict.
As a manager, you have to not really care what people think as much. You can’t be super anxious. You can’t care a lot about what people think – because that will lead you down a really terrible management path where you just want to be their friend, and there are times where you’ve got to get them to do their jobs. If those traits aren’t you, you will hate management.”
Read: 5 Activities & Games For Team Building at Work That Don’t Suck (Tried & Tested)
Does What Companies Look For In A Manager Change Across Industries?
You work across 56+ industries – is what companies look for in a manager actually consistent, or does it shift depending on the business?
“Yes. It’s the same. It’s crazy. Even hiring – I hire across industries too, and they’re like, what does it look like here? And I’m like, every industry is the same.
Obviously, there are technical things. If you’re an engineer and you want to manage a team of engineers, of course you need technical knowledge related to engineering.
But the skills they want in you to be a good manager are the same: do you get stuff done? Do you take problems off my plate and not add to it? Do you bring me solutions and not problems? Can I give you criticism and feedback? Are you coachable? Do you actually care? And are you going to put in the hours and do hard work?”
“I have clients with managers who are engineers or whatever, and they just miss these skills. And I reckon that’s why I could be a manager in any company, even not knowing engineering.
I reckon I could manage a team of engineers because I have those traits, and I would just figure out what “good” looks like and what “bad” looks like. I could figure it out. That’s my argument – management is not industry-specific, although you do have to know what is good and what is bad.”
What High Performers Have In Common – And What They Do Differently
What do the high performers you’ve placed have in common? What are they doing differently to everyone else?
“High performers love challenge and they love a game. I had a high performer once apply for a job at $150,000 and he was on $500,000 a year at a mining company. And I was like, why are you changing jobs? He said, because I am so bored.
High performers aren’t actually very money-motivated, usually. The vast majority are not money-motivated, meaning it’s not the main thing they change jobs for. They would rather take a pay cut at a company they love, playing a game and having a challenge they really, really want to play.”
“They love being given responsibility. If I want to attract a high performer, I’ll say, you can take this whole area – take the whole team, here are your goals, you have to define the goals. They love goals. And basically it’s like, I want you to go and do this thing and I need your help building it. That makes them want to leave whatever business they’re in.
So what they have in common: they love a game, they love a challenge, they love to be responsible for an area, and they are not money-motivated as their first port of call. And they love to solve problems. Love them.”
The Biggest Mistake People Make When Going For A Management Role
From what you’ve seen, what’s the biggest mistake people make when they’re going for a management role?
“Not describing or knowing or being able to list – either in a resume or an interview – all of the amazing results they’ve had.
A lot of candidates get trained by recruiters who tell them to put a lot of knowledge-based, duty-based stuff in their resume. Make sure you use these keywords. And that’s fine, you need to do all that.
But what a lot of people don’t do in resumes is highlight not what they’ve done – like, “I ran a team” – but what they achieved. You could run a team into the ground. I could sound so impressive – “I managed 300 people at Nike.” I could have been the worst manager Nike has ever seen and halved their numbers, and you don’t know that.
So people who focus on outcomes in their interviews – and in their resumes – don’t just list “I managed a team of 300.” Add that, but then say: these were the results I created. Before me, after me.”
“I implemented a new process. And you can monetise everything. Say I saved my team of ten people an hour a week – that’s 10 hours a week, times that by a year, times that by the average wage. That’s a financial implication.
Anything you can do that shows the outcome, the result, the improvement in amount or volume. And then don’t be humble.
Please don’t be humble – or find a way to say it humbly, like: “Look, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m a results-based person. Here are my results.” Do not be afraid to sell yourself on results. Not charm, not all this other stuff – your actual results.”
The Candidates Who Surprised Everyone – And Why They Were Exactly Right For The Role
On the flip side, have you ever placed someone who surprised everyone – who didn’t look like the obvious choice but turned out to be exactly right?
“All the time, because a lot of owners only go for people they’re impressed by in the interview. But what if you specifically hate interviews? What if you’re really nervous in interviews and you’re perfectly fine in the role? And then you’ve just tanked the interview – this is not your fault.
It’s just the way people hire, and it’s so problematic.
I had a person tell me once that he didn’t hire someone because he didn’t sell himself in the interview. And I’m like, that is such a flawed way to make a decision. What if the last time he tried to sell himself in an interview, the person told him to stop? Everyone has these weird ideas about hiring.
I placed this one woman – she was in her 50s, which people are often hesitant about [she didn’t fit the look people typically describe when they say they want a “polished” candidate], and English was her second language. As soon as the HR manager met with her, they said no.”
“And I called the CEO and bypassed her. I said, you need to hire her. And he hired her, and she managed a whole department of finance that is normally a role for five people. She did it all on her own and she was incredible. She wasn’t a particularly charming candidate at all. And I love those types of people – the underdogs.
Why? Because I go back to what I said before – performance-based. She stood out more than anyone else because of her results and achievements, which weren’t even in her resume because no one had told her to put that stuff in. I had to pull it out of her in the interview. And she was absolutely incredible.”
Three Things To Do Right Now If You Want To Move Into Management
For someone who’s ready to make the move into management – what should they actually be doing right now to position themselves?
“First, I would be recording and calculating every single result you have – everything you’ve implemented, changed, or done, any target you’ve achieved, any outcome or achievement – and try to make a record of the impact it’s had.
So even if you’re in a staff position, maybe you suggested a new thing and the company started using it. Ask your manager three months later: what was the result of that? They say, we actually ended up increasing X. Write that down. Make a note. Record all the amazing things you do.
Number two is to be very solution-oriented. Find solutions and ideas, take work off your manager’s plate. If you take work off people’s plates, they will love you – and they will want to give you more work, which is management. So if you can find ways to take things off people’s plates and be solution-oriented, that’s huge.”
“And then the third thing is really great communication skills. Invest in how you communicate – in a positive way, and in how you guide other people through communication.
I have to be able to say: “Okay, just with this meeting, I want to clarify – do you want to get this out of it? Because this is what I would like. Does that sound good? Are we okay to go through this?” That’s controlling the room through communication, and it’s a really important skill.
Match that with being solution-oriented, high-performing, and having these amazing results, and you are a business owner or executive’s dream. You will constantly be promoted.”
Read: The Way You’re Emailing Is Making You Look Unprofessional. Here’s What You Need to Know
What Most People Don’t Understand About How Management Hiring Decisions Are Really Made
What’s the one thing you wish more people understood about how hiring decisions for management roles are actually made?
“Management is a journey. If you don’t like people, you’re not going to like it. If you don’t like performance, you’re not going to like it. If you don’t like responsibility, you’re not going to like it – and all of that is absolutely okay.
There is nothing wrong with being a staff member and not being a manager. Do not feel like you have to be a manager, because it is not for everyone, and it is a really hard job. Especially in a small business – you are answerable to the owner and to the staff simultaneously, and when things go wrong, it lands on you.
But if you’re inclined to like it, and you like people, it is a really rewarding journey. You can make real change as a manager. I’ve seen managers change companies.”
“I’ve seen managers restore business owners’ marriages by taking so much off the owner’s plate that they stopped fighting with their partner every night. I’ve seen managers help staff through incredibly dark times because they were such a good mentor. Do not underestimate the power of a good manager, and what you can do to change people’s lives.
And the last thing I’ll say is: you need a good owner. There are a lot of great managers and a lot of great staff out there – but there are also a lot of not-so-great owners. You’ve got to find someone who values you, who you have fun with, who you admire and respect, who you want to follow.
Because your job as a manager is to execute whatever the founder wants. If you don’t love your founder, don’t be their manager. Go find a founder that you love.”
Read: Is It Time to Leave Your Job? Here’s How to Know – and How to Step Away Gracefully
What It All Comes Down To
Getting promoted into management isn’t about waiting for someone to notice you. It’s about being deliberate – about how you show up, what you take ownership of, and how you’re perceived long before a formal decision is made.
Marnie’s perspective cuts through a lot of the noise around career advancement: the best candidates for leadership roles aren’t just good at their jobs. They’re already thinking, behaving, and showing up like leaders before anyone gives them the title.
If that’s where you’re headed, Marnie and the teams at Talent X and Educate X work with businesses and individuals across Australia to build high-performing teams and develop the kind of managers companies actually want to keep. Find out more at Talent X’s website.
About Marnie Jones: Marnie Jones is Director of Talent X and Educate X, working with businesses and individuals across Australia to identify, develop, and retain high-performing talent.
Key Takeaways
- Hard work alone rarely gets people promoted into management – visibility and intent matter just as much
- Hiring managers look for candidates who are already thinking like a leader before they have the title
- Wanting the title and being ready for the role are two very different things – and companies can usually tell the difference
- What companies look for in a manager is broadly consistent across industries, even if the context shifts
- High performers share specific habits and mindsets that set them apart – and most of these can be learned
- The biggest mistake people make when going for a management role is focusing on their own output rather than the team’s
- Someone can be overlooked for promotion even when they’re technically excellent – and often they’re the last to know why
- Positioning yourself for management is a proactive, long-term play – not something you do the week before a review
- Learning to be a high performer is possible; it’s not a fixed personality trait
- Hiring decisions for management roles are rarely as objective as people hope – knowing how to navigate that is part of the game
Leave a Reply