The Peter Principle Fails When Leading New Leaders…

Psst! Want to know a secret? What will give your career a huge boost? Or to ask the question differently, what skills should you invest in for maximum growth in your career? As we will see, the answer is clearly leadership skills.

Want to be promoted? Want more responsibility? Want a higher salary? Want to be respected? Want to make more key decisions? Start by gaining the skills to lead others.

There are two attributes that are the most common among successful executives, the ability to clearly communicate and the ability to lead. Learn these two skills and you will be investing in yourself, and it will be an investment that will pay rich dividends.

We all have horror stories about atrocious supervisors we have worked for. I have certainly worked with my share of them. Poor leaders typically stagnate their own career as well as destroy the careers of others. Instead of motivating their staff they are de-motivating them. Rather than building teams they are destroying them, and instead of meeting goals they are missing them.

If you join me as we explore Leadership skills your career will never be the same, and you might just find that you actually enjoy having the skills of a leader.

Poor Leadership happens over and over. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have witnessed it myself. An individual who is an excellent technical employee is promoted to a position with some supervision responsibilities. Suddenly s/he is no longer the star employee that s/he once was. Usually s/he ends up working longer hours (60-80 hour weeks); yet accomplishes less in both quantity and quality. Her/His former peers may resent her/him. Finally, her/his career (at least with her/his current employer) stagnates or ends.

So what is happening? Why do so many people falter once they have received a promotion? The situation is commonly blamed on the Peter Principle; a management concept named after Laurence J. Peter. Laurence Peter originally proposed the Peter Principle in a book that he gave the same name to (The Peter Principle, Lawrence J. Peter, Buccaneer Books Inc).

The Peter Principle is based on this theory: systems that evolve tend to develop up to the limit of their adaptive competence. The book reasons that people behave in according to the principle just as other organisms and systems do.

The principle can be interpreted as Individuals are promoted because of excellent work until they reach a level within the organization at which they are unable to adapt and are therefore ineffective.

The principle goes on to reason that such people will remain at this level of incompetence for the remainder of their careers. It reasons that if they were “demoted” down one level to the last job they performed effectively, they would be happier and the organization would be better off because of their returned competence.

I would suggest that the Peter Principle is often a superficial and unfair explanation of the problem. If people struggle when they take on a new position it does not mean that they are unfit for that position or unable to adapt to it; it only indicates that they have hit their current level of skills.

That last statement sounds similar to the Peter Principle, but there is a difference. The Peter Principle states that they are unable to adapt and therefore cannot move beyond their incompetence. I am suggesting that we need to acknowledge the lack of skills and ability so that we can help new leaders learn and grow beyond their limitations.

In some people incompetence is a terminal condition, but it does not have to be. People are constantly running up against the limit of their abilities and knowledge. It is only by acknowledging these limits and pushing beyond them that they grow. The important thing to remember about competence is that it reflects the skills a person currently has. An individual can always add new skills by learning and applying; if s/he is willing.

The Peter Principle assumes that people should be able to adapt to their new responsibilities as opposed to being taught their new responsibilities. Now, I will agree that there are people who will receive training on leadership and refuse to change their behaviour. These people are either unable or unwilling to adapt - this however, is not the case for the vast majority of professionals who are promoted. They are simply not given the leadership training that they need in order to succeed.

Why is this? It is mainly because of a common misperception: If a person can perform a task then he should be able to supervise someone else performing it. I would suggest to you this is completely wrong. Just because someone can perform a particular task with excellence, does not mean that he can effectively manage someone else doing the same task. It also does not mean that he can effectively motivate someone to perform the task in either an efficient or an effective manner.

If I can perform a particular task and I am reasonably able to communicate, then I should be able to instruct someone else to perform that task. That however, is where the skills required to perform the task and the skills required to be a supervisor part ways. Being able to communicate how to carry out a task does not give me the ability to provide leadership to others performing it. Without leadership skills I will struggle while trying to motivate my team to perform the task effectively. I will also struggle with allowing the team to grow into their new roles; especially with the task that I once performed. I will demonstrate impatience, as I demand that my team grasp the concepts that come intuitively to me; regardless of whether that intuition comes naturally or was learned over a long period of time. Finally I will be unable to provide positive feedback in an effective manner. 

The smart professional is the individual who is proactive – that is s/he learning the skills for the position they plan to hold in the future today. If you are planning to supervise others in your career seek these skills out now.

A smart leader also realizes that learning these skills is a process not an event. No matter how much you know about motivating your team you can always benefit from learning more.

Take the time now to improve your leadership skills and your efforts won’t be wasted. Whether in the office, at home or in social situations the ability to motivate, influence and inspire will provide many tangible and intangible rewards.

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie All Rights Reserved

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