Your Best Editor Is Your Worst Manager
The most loyal person on your team might be terrible at managing other people. That's not their fault.
Promotion is a role change.
You have an editor who has been with you since the early days. They're loyal, they're talented, and they know your brand better than anyone. So when you need someone to manage the growing team, the instinct is obvious: promote him or her.
That instinct is usually wrong.
The skills that make someone a great editor (detail-oriented, execution-focused, deep in the craft) are almost the opposite of what makes someone a great manager (delegation, conflict resolution, strategic prioritization, comfort with ambiguity, time mamagement skills). When you promote your best executor into a management role, you lose a great editor and gain an uncomfortable manager. Two losses from one decision.
This happens constantly in creator businesses because the team is small and loyalty feels like qualification. But loyalty is a relationship quality, not a skill set. Your editor loves the work. That doesn't mean they want to spend their Tuesday mediating a scheduling conflict between two freelancers or building a quarterly content calendar in a spreadsheet.
Once you promote someone, demoting them back destroys the relationship. You can't easily undo it. So the stakes on getting this wrong are higher than most creators realize when they make the call.
The better model is to separate the two tracks entirely. Growth in craft (better editor, higher-level creative responsibilities, bigger projects) and growth in management (team oversight, hiring, operations) are different ladders. Not everyone needs to climb the management one to feel valued.
1. Role Audit - Before promoting anyone, write out the actual daily tasks of the new role. If more than half of those tasks are things the candidate has never done and has never expressed interest in doing, you're promoting based on loyalty, not fit.
2. Trial Run - Give them a 30-day management project (like overseeing a specific campaign or coordinating a team of freelancers) before making it permanent. Watch whether they energize or drain from the work.
3. Craft Track - Build a growth path that doesn't require management. Senior Editor, Creative Director, Lead Producer. Give your best people a way to advance without forcing them into a role that eats the thing they're best at.
4. Honest Conversation - Ask them directly: "Do you want to manage people, or do you want to get better at what you already do?" Most people have never been asked. The answer will save you both a year of misery.
The best way to keep your best people is to let them grow in the direction they're already facing.