Understand Leadership Progression
At a glance
Leadership Progression is OneClick's module for tracking a team member's internal development and promotion path. It gives leaders a structured way to document where a team member stands on the store's career track, which milestones they have completed, and what is next. This reference explains what Leadership Progression is for, how progression tracks work, and how the module relates to Passports, Ratings, and Permissions.
Before you start
This is a reference article. Read it once, return when needed.
Core reference content
What Leadership Progression is for
Leadership Progression is internal promotion tracking. The module answers questions like "where is this team member on their path from Team Member to Shift Leader?" or "who in my store is ready for the next step?" It is a leader tool for intentional leadership development, not an automated promotion engine.
Three use cases drive most of the module's value:
- One-on-ones. Leaders reference the record during coaching conversations to ground the discussion in specific completed and upcoming milestones.
- Promotion decisions. When a position opens up, the record helps identify ready candidates across the team.
- Succession planning. Knowing who is at which stage across the team lets leaders plan backfill and development resources.
How a progression track is structured
[VERIFY: confirm the exact structure of a progression track.]
A progression track is typically a defined series of stages, each with one or more milestones a team member must complete to advance. Stages represent levels of leadership development; milestones represent specific competencies, certifications, or completed work that evidence readiness for the next stage.
Whether the track is store-level, organization-level, or individually customizable is an implementation detail that affects how each store configures it. [VERIFY: confirm track scope, customizability, and who has permission to modify tracks.]
How Leadership Progression differs from Training Passports
This distinction is the single most common source of confusion for readers new to the modules, so it deserves a dedicated explanation.
Training Passports certify competence at a specific position. A Passport says, "this team member is trained and rated well enough to work Runner at Shift 1." One passport per team member per position.
Leadership Progression tracks readiness for roles above the team-member level. A progression record says, "this team member has completed the milestones that indicate they are ready to consider a Shift Leader role." One progression record per team member.
Passports are many (one per position), scoped to the position. Progression is one (per team member), scoped to the person's overall development. A team member can have several stamped passports without being far along in progression, and can be far along in progression while still building new passports. The two modules track different dimensions of the same person.
How Leadership Progression relates to other modules
Training Passports. Often an input. Stamped passports on multiple positions may be a progression milestone. [VERIFY: whether the relationship is explicit in the product (completed passports automatically mark a progression milestone) or informal (leaders reference passports when updating progression manually).]
Ratings. An input. A team member consistently rated at the higher tiers across positions may be progression-eligible. Not an automated trigger; leaders reference ratings when evaluating progression.
Permissions. Scopes who can view and update progression records. See Understand Permission Levels.
Infractions. Not a direct input, but the overall team member record includes infractions that may inform progression decisions. A team member being considered for Shift Leader with a recent attendance pattern on the Infractions tab is a different candidate than one with a clean record.
Who can view and update
Viewing. Leaders with the appropriate permission can view progression records for team members in their store. [VERIFY: the exact permission and whether visibility is restricted to certain roles or open to all leaders with the view permission.]
Updating. Updating a milestone requires a permission [VERIFY: which] and is typically limited to leaders who own development for the team member.
Team member self-view. [VERIFY: whether team members can see their own progression record on their own device.] This is a significant policy question at the store level, since some stores prefer transparency and others prefer leader-facing only.
Progression is manual
The module does not automatically advance team members based on other OneClick activity. Milestones are updated by leaders. A team member who has stamped three passports does not automatically reach a "has stamped three passports" milestone; a leader updates that milestone when they see it is complete. [VERIFY: confirm there is no auto-advancement logic in the module.]
This is intentional. Internal promotion is a judgment call that benefits from human review, and automatic advancement would create a brittle, gamed record.
Video
Not planned.
Common gotchas
I confused Progression with Passports and tracked position certification in the wrong place.
Passports handle position-level certification; Progression handles overall development. If you find yourself tracking something like "knows how to run Front Counter," that belongs in a Passport, not a Progression milestone. A Progression milestone is more like "has demonstrated leadership on a shift" or "has completed the Shift Leader onboarding series."
A team member has been effectively operating at the next stage for weeks but the record does not show it.
Progression is manual. Update the milestones that reflect where they actually are. The record is only as accurate as the updates leaders make.
Two leaders have different pictures of where a team member stands.
Almost always a data-entry or communication gap, not a product bug. Open the progression record together during a one-on-one and align on what is true.
A team member's progression looks backward after a role change.
[VERIFY: whether progression is preserved, reset, or rescoped when a team member's role changes.]
I want to report on progression across my whole team.
[VERIFY: whether a team-wide or store-wide progression view or report exists.]
Related articles
- Track a Team Member's Progression (How-To Guides)
- Update a Progression Milestone (How-To Guides)
- Understand the Passport Lifecycle (Reference)
- Understand Permission Levels (Reference)
Still stuck
If Leadership Progression behavior does not match this reference, or if you cannot find the progression surface, submit a support ticket with your store number, the team member's name, and a screenshot of what you are seeing.
Pre-publish checklist status
19 28029329-5308-468d-82a9-858b6c75d65a complete Seven sections filled (Reference adaptation, scaffold level).
20 d682d8c9-afe3-4df8-91f8-c4174e9205e7 complete At a glance within template spec (three sentences, one paragraph).
21 2f1256f7-4591-4e69-baf0-a65f6ff67e69 complete No em dashes, no hedge words, permission-based throughout.
22 3fea8e03-1a0e-4b08-bee7-24696f4712b1 complete Voice: operator is not the subject of OneClick actions. Leader, store, or reader-based framing used instead.
23 31e1a02f-7c61-4475-a284-8e0e80fa71ff incomplete UI verified against Production (extensive VERIFY blocks).
24 f0ebb213-b8be-4a3c-ab83-34217f952652 incomplete VERIFY blocks resolved (track structure, scope, permission labels, self-view, passport relationship, auto-advancement, role-change behavior, reporting).
25 fd9ce0e7-be6d-41af-a4bc-69ad4e2fc379 incomplete Reviewed by Jared and Kevin.