The Peter Principle - have we fixed it yet?
If you’re not familiar with the Peter Principle, it states that competent employees get promoted until they reach a role where they demonstrate incompetence and stop getting promoted. They reach the level of their incompetence.
You’ll form your own opinion, but I find the idea that people get promoted until they are incompetent in a role and stay there, a bit scary.
The concept was published in 1969, so its older than many of us. Is it still true?
I’ve certainly seen a few examples this year. Have a think about people I your own organisation. Do you see it?
So, what’s the solution? The big-picture answer is simple - invest in them, to make them competent. But just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy.
What does the detail look like?
Train, coach or mentor them? (Train for skills, coach for attitude?) Manage them closely? Re-shape their role? (I’d love your thoughts and comments on this.)
What if the person managing or mentoring them is also incompetent at their role?
In a cost-of-living crisis, it’s the most talented employees who leave for new roles and more money. Which means that “retention is the new recruitment”.
And when times are tight, the training budget is often one of the first to be cut. Invest in people to improve their capability and keep your best colleagues.
If you need to retain your talent and maintain competence across all your teams, give yourself and your business a competitive edge. Make time to make a business case for your training budget this year.
HR and Org Development
1 年Time is always the default excuse when coaching managers to develop others even with their own knowledge. We must remember that it also takes time to re-recruit and train....so what is the difference. Developing competencies and creating paths and vision even in a competent person will create engagement.
Engineering, Design & Development Manager at Swegon
1 年The more scary (and maybe more common?) version is when ‘Peter’ is in such a position that the promote/leave boxes get reversed…Is the ‘fail up’ model more damaging to organisations?
Writing business growth strategies and driving perfectly aligned marketing and sales tactics for companies selling services. Strategy | Business Development | Marketing | Client Listening | Training | Legal 500/Chambers
1 年‘Retention is the new recruitment’ - absolutely true Pierson Stratford! Particularly in crowded markets! We would never expect our children to develop and grow without education and training, why do we think that stops when we become adults? This is a particularly thorny issue in professional services where the best ‘practioners’ ie lawyers, get promoted to management positions but are given no training to develop their management skills! And of course, in tight market conditions, carrying those who aren’t fulfilling the role we need them to play simply isn’t an option any more! Great read, very thought provoking, thanks for tagging me in!
National surgical Connected Care Specialist
1 年I have seen this so may times.. People can learn to a certain level and then they need to be taught