Wambua served as a cashier in a Kenyan parastatal for the past
20 years. He worked his way up from a junior cashier to deputy cashier
and finally to a full cashier. Wambua enjoyed working in the parastatal
and eagerly applied for a position as the chief treasurer. He hoped that
his years of faithful service at the organisation would make up for his
lack of management experience.
By SCOTT BELLOWS
Summary
- Incompetence originates from a variety of sources unique to the individual.
- Some leaders score low on their personality levels of conscientiousness causing them to become laissez-faire leaders who push off decisions and fail to act.
- Others, like US President Donald Trump, who previously led a global real estate branding empire, got promoted beyond his level of incompetence and his narcissistic paranoid tendencies are sinking his presidency.
So, he became overjoyed when he received word that his promotion got approved and he would become a member of management.
However,
as Wambua entered his new role and as time progressed, his colleagues
who previously supported him became some of his most ardent detractors.
Puzzled, the staff wondered how someone could do so well as a cashier
but fail to manage effectively as the chief treasurer.
Many
of us can relate to Wambua’s situation. Either we know people in our
offices who seem to have been promoted too far above their capacity or
even on a personal level feel that even we fall out of place and believe
we are better suited for a different role.
In 1969, Lawrence Peter and Raymond Hull coined the phrase
‘Peter’s Principle’ to mean throughout one’s career, an employee
continuously gets promoted through an organisation’s hierarchy until
they reach their level of incompetence.
The authors argued that hierarchies represent archaic unhelpful structures within companies.
Incompetence
originates from a variety of sources unique to the individual. Some
leaders score low on their personality levels of conscientiousness
causing them to become laissez-faire leaders who push off decisions and
fail to act.
Others, like US President Donald Trump,
who previously led a global real estate branding empire, got promoted
beyond his level of incompetence and his narcissistic paranoid
tendencies are sinking his presidency.
Still, others may lack the industry-specific competencies of their higher roles.
But
why would employees seek advancement beyond their competency only to
fail in a more senior position? Researchers Justin Kruger and David
Dunning sadly note in their studies that people prove painfully unaware
of their own career deficiencies. Many employees suffer a dual burden of
not possessing the right skills for advancement coupled with a lack of
self-awareness that causes them to make suboptimal self-harming choices
that also hurts their respective organisation.
What can
be done to reduce the effects of the Peter’s Principle? Each job should
be looked at individually with its own set of unique competencies and
requirements.
Positions must be opened for application from people inside and outside the company.
Just
because an employee succeeded in a different position previously does
not necessarily correlate to success in a new dissimilar post in the
future.
Hold rigorous rubrics of success during an
interview and do not settle on a substandard second best when an ideal
candidate cannot be found.
Re-advertise until a suitable candidate accepts the position.
Also,
set clear performance targets in regard to soft skills so as to
discover when the Peter’s Principle has occurred in your organisation so
you can move incompetent staff to a more suitable position or terminate
them altogether. Do not let the ‘Trump-effect’ take hold in your firm.
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