When it comes to success rate, business shares at least one thing with baseball -- you tend to strike out a lot more than you get on base.
Take promotions, for instance. Every time a manager and leader makes a promotion, he or she faces three possible outcomes, two of them negative: (1) The person promoted won't grow into the job, and will fail; (2) the person will handle the transition gracefully, bringing to its responsibilities the same qualities that led to the promotion in the first place; or (3) the person will set his sights on undermining and toppling his boss.
Two out of three isn't good, but it's the nature of the game. Since a business cannot survive and, more importantly, thrive, without promotions, you're left with a quandary. How do you choose the right people to promote, and how do you improve the odds that they'll not be the ones tempted to stab you in the back?