I had lunch earlier this week with an exceptionally bright and capable software engineer. He shared with me that he was discouraged that his manager wasn’t allowing him to interview for interesting positions elsewhere in the company. His manager is a relatively new manager, having been promoted to manager earlier in the year. It’s a common mistake for new managers to try to hold key people in the group. But it’s the wrong thing to do.

I think one of the ways you measure a manager’s success is by how often his direct reports are promoted to roles outside of the group. If the company is growing and new projects are forming and a manager’s direct reports aren’t moving up, it reflects poorly on the manager. The manager’s manager has to be asking himself “why aren’t the folks moving up?” Two possible reasons might be: A) he’s hiring people that other teams don’t want; or B) he’s hoarding good people (at their own expense). Neither is a particularly glowing endorsement of the manager.

Look at most of the group leaders at Microsoft. Many of the department managers, GMs and VPs were hired as software engineers years ago. I’ll bet very few moved straight up. The more likely path looks more like a staircase, up and over, up and over, up and over.

Create opportunities for your people. Their advancement helps them and you. When members of your team become the seeds for so many great teams in the future, you’ll know you’re doing a great job recruiting, developing and promoting your people. Look at PayPal as the model. How many startups today - Yelp, YouTube, LinkedIn, Slide and many more - trace their DNA to the PayPal farm system? A decade from now I’d love to see the Seattle startup landscape populated by blist alumni.

Are you roadblocked in your current role? Are you one of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs? Come grow with blist.