According to the Peter Principle, in any given hierarchy an individual will rise to the level of their own incompetence. If promotion is the only way to receive reward, people are likely to step on this land mine of incompetence, even if the promotion is for a job they don’t love or even want! For instance, you might reward an amazing salesperson by making them manager, then regional manager, and eventually VP — but just as the character Michael Scott from The Office taught us, an outstanding sales person doesn’t necessarily make an outstanding manager.
I see two important lessons to learn from this. The first is for current managers/leaders: If you are running an organization where the only way to reward a person is to promote them away from their area of success, ask yourself: is that really the best structure for your company? Be willing to consider how you might create an environment that rewards good work without falling into this trap. You might have to face certain fears around losing talent, because everyone thinks promotion is the badge of success. So what would have to happen in your organization to change that mindset? What risks might you take? What traditional structure might you have to disassemble?
If we look at the Peter Principle as a wake-up call to capitalize on and honor human talent, create loyalty, increase engagement and promote joy for each individual, what’s the first step you can take to achieve that goal today?
PS: Wondering what the second lesson is? We’ll be talking about that next week!
