In 1968, Dr. Laurence J. Peter published the book: “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong” highlighting a cause of ‘poor management’.
If you’re not familiar with The Peter Principle … it simply states that in a hierarchical organization:
‘Every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence’.
See, competent and highly skilled employees are typically rewarded for their hard work and success by being promoted to the ‘next rung on the ladder’.
For each success, another promotion follows, until …
The successes suddenly stop.
RARELY is this any fault of the employee, they are still giving it the same effort, but the needle doesn’t move.
Prior to this final promotion, they were fully engaged, ambitious, and generated results (hence the string of promotions)
It wasn’t until they were promoted to a position that required different skills and talents they didn’t possess …
They began ‘dropping the ball’ – often oblivious as to what’s happening. All they know is that they feel stressed, depressed, and disengaged.
Unfortunately, this is what happens when you choose a candidate based on previous results, and not on them having the right stuff for the right job.
So … if you have individuals who were previously ‘on the ball’ … but are now dropping it …
It’s essential that you take a moment and investigate whether you’ve accidentally promoted too many ‘Peters’.
If so, you’ll want to correct the situation as soon as possible before a culture of ‘ball dropping’ spreads throughout the company.