Feature · Forbes Business Council
Pick Leaders Your Team Already Trusts
Chris’s Forbes byline on how he decides who to promote into leadership, and why the best evidence comes from the people that person would lead.
Publication
Forbes
Date
October 29, 2026
Topic
Leadership & Promotion
Format
Bylined Article
Keynote Speaker●Published in Forbes●Published in Inc.●Bestselling Author of You Are Capable of More●President & COO●NATHO Vice President●Inc. Regionals #3 Fastest-Growing in the Midwest●Fortune Magazine Best Workplaces Award●10x Growth in Two Years●2026 Paris Book Festival Winner●Keynote Speaker●Published in Forbes●Published in Inc.●Bestselling Author of You Are Capable of More●President & COO●NATHO Vice President●Inc. Regionals #3 Fastest-Growing in the Midwest●Fortune Magazine Best Workplaces Award●10x Growth in Two Years●2026 Paris Book Festival Winner●
About the Article
The interview was the past year.
Forbes published this Business Council piece on October 29, 2026. It starts with something Chris has noticed after interviewing and promoting a lot of people into leadership: he enjoys the interviews, but the interview is not what earns someone the role. What he is really looking for is whether that person already made the team better without a title.He learned it early, as a shift supervisor in his first leadership role, leading people who were older than him and had been there longer. They did what he asked, but he could feel the difference between someone following an instruction and someone who believed in where the team was going. That was his first real lesson in the difference between compliance and commitment.From there the article lays out how he actually makes the decision: asking the team, without telling them who applied, who they go to when they are stuck and who makes the team better, and then sitting down with every person who does not get the promotion to build a plan for the next one.◆ The Through Line
Being great at a job and being great at leading the people who do it are two different things. Leadership stops asking how good you are and starts asking whether the people around you are better because you are there. The team has been watching that answer all year, which is why they are the best people to ask.
Key Points
What the Article Argues
Six ideas from the piece, and the ones Chris works through with leadership teams deciding who to develop and promote next.
01
The Title Does Not Bring Trust With It
People will follow an instruction from a new supervisor. Believing in where the team is going is something a leader has to earn, and that is the gap between compliance and commitment.02
Performance Earns a Shot, Not the Role
Gallup reported in January 2026 that 65% of U.S. frontline supervisors got the job based on performance or years in a frontline role. Only 30% pointed to supervisory skills or experience.03
A Great Passenger Is Not a Driver
Hundreds of hours in the passenger seat never earned anyone the keys. The person with the best numbers is producing; the person helping everyone else get better is producing and leading.04
Ask the People They Would Lead
Keep the questions concrete: who they go to when they are stuck, who taught them something this year, who they would want in the room when something goes wrong. Popular people get named for the fun stuff. Trusted people get named for the hard stuff.05
The Team Informs, the Leader Decides
Asking the team does not hand them the decision. It gathers what an interview cannot show. And if nobody names the person you are leaning toward, find out whether they lead in ways the team cannot see or have not started leading yet.06
Build a Plan for Who Was Not Chosen
Someone who raised their hand for leadership is telling you they want to grow. Their plan almost always comes back to developing the people around them, which takes no title and can start tomorrow.“
The answer isn’t a better interview. It’s a better year.Chris Sund in Forbes
About the Publication
Forbes Business Council.
Forbes Business Council is an invitation-only organization for business owners and leaders. Council members write for Forbes on what they are actually running, which is why the pieces read like operating notes rather than commentary.Chris writes for Forbes and Inc. on leadership, culture, and human potential. As President and COO of Uniti Med, GQR Healthcare and Nebula, he makes promotion decisions like the ones in this article himself, and the story of the newer employee the team named, and the teammate who had not even applied, comes straight from one of those rounds.Go deeper on chrissund.com: How to Decide Who to Promote Into Leadership, What to Do When You Did Not Get the Promotion, and How to Lead Without a Title.
For Leadership Teams
Bring this to your team.
Chris speaks on spotting and developing the people who are already leading in You Are Capable of More: Leadership, for conferences, leadership retreats and company meetings.
Response within one business day · info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771