Have you ever faced the “Peter Principle” in real life? That principle states that “in any hierarchy, a person rises to their own level of incompetence.“ Perhaps you’ve faced this yourself, or perhaps you are currently experiencing this with a superior, where they were fantastic at their job and got promoted. They were appropriately congratulated, continued doing a fantastic job and fairly earned another promotion. Congratulations are in order again and this continues until suddenly they’ve found themselves outside their skill set or passions. So now they’ve gone from being a passionate “A” performer to a disengaged or ineffective “C” performer. But, because they’re in that “leadership” position, they’re seem afraid to show weakness and reluctant to ask for help. Such leaders are seldom able to fool anyone and their teams know when something’s not right. As a team member, when we recognize this situation with our bosses we have two choices – sabotage or empower. I believe it’s time to lead up. Here’s three ways to do that.
1) Empower and draw out. The boss doesn’t know what the boss doesn’t know. You can help clarify the gaps in leadership that are missing and desired by the team below. The boss might be thinking he’s doing a great job, because no one has told him what is missing. They need to know what leadership skills the team below them requires; they need to know what the team expects of them. This is your opportunity to educate. The risk here is that the education will become judgmental, or even be viewed as an attack, so the secret here lives in your ability to ask powerful questions of the boss, such as “we’ve been looking at the numbers (or results) and the team has some ideas we want to run past you to help us reach our goals, are you open to such a discussion?” People love to asked, they hate to be told. And no one likes to be blamed for the problem, but given a chance to provide or be the solution, they are often eager to step up. Another of my favorite questions you could ask your boss is simply this: “Hey boss, I’m just curious, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, where do you think we are performing as a team?” And if they answer anything less then 10, ask “what would it take to make us a 10?” The idea here is to get a sense of how they see the problem and how creative they are being for the solution. This will give you insight for how to approach them with suggestions.
2) Encourage collaboration. If we’re going to affect a leader who is ineffectively leading, we need to cultivate a culture of collaboration. Reduce the negative talk around the shortcomings of the leader; look for the leader’s strengths and the gaps you can fill within the team. Understand what the collective talents of the team are so you can see the bigger picture: what’s required to accomplish the team’s goal? Now connect the team: start a forum, a conference call, a weekly meeting, something to pull the team together to collaborate. If the leader is not going to pull the team together, then the team has to pull itself together. Again, there is risk; the risk here is that the boss could see that as a threat. Unless, of course, it is working. Make this act as non-threatening as possible. Be deliberate in diminishing and eliminating negative talk, and connect with the boss in a positive way. The threat is when there is a negative reflection upon the boss; when that is removed and the boss is contributing, then it’s less threatening.
3) Forever and always remember – the boss is still the boss. All of these steps, and especially this one, take humility, reserve, and the effort to be really conscious of where your limits lie. In doing so, you have the opportunity to become a resource, a go-to person, even a confidante to the boss. Just because you think they are less then ideal or effective, doesn’t change their position. Respect the position, connect with the human. No one will change if they are feeling disrespected or dishonored, they will simply dig in and protect themselves.
To be effective as a team, leadership has to come from somewhere. If it’s not coming from the top down, let it come from the middle out or the bottom up. As long as the players hold tight to the idea that “its not my job,” nothing will get accomplished. In the absence of the “leader” leading, the opportunity opens up for someone to lead up.
