[July 23, 2017] Nearly 50 years ago, Dr. Laurence J. Peter published a chillingly nasty but satirical book that helped shape in the minds of many what they had observed for so long. The idea was that in any “hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”1 … and he called it the Peter Principle.
We’ve all seen it in action. Many of us have been on the receiving end of those who have risen to the top of their game as leaders or managers and in some way we were punished because they lack what it takes to be successful. For example, I’ve written several times about my first U.S. Army Company Commander who made my life difficult as a junior officer because he was incapable of making timely, effective decisions.2
Of course, the Peter Principle is just that … a principle, not an ironclad law of organizational behavior. There are exceptions and those folks who achieve considerable success with considerable level of social skills are often called great leaders. In addition, nearly every one of us have seen highly competent leaders who we would follow anywhere.
It is nevertheless of interest to observe those promoted or elected to high office fail to carry out their assigned duties. Learning from those unfortunate folks is what good leaders do. Good leaders do not wallow in the grief of others, nor do we derive personal satisfaction from it, but we can put that experience in our leadership rucksack and promise to not make the same errors (perhaps a quick laugh can be in order).
One avoidable miscarriage of leadership comes to us from the great city of Minneapolis, Minnesota where its police chief just resigned after making a number of leader blunders. Scott Johnson from the PowerLine blog gives us an update which is titled The Whole World is Watching Our Clown Show.3
Not only did the police chief make several critical errors (and then resigned for them) but the city mayor stepped in and immediately failed also. She talks on and on but does not really say anything that the public truly needs to hear; mostly platitudes, lacking decisiveness, and showing weakness. All that is before the press conference is taken over by protesters and then the mayor fails to regain control.4
The saga of this will continue to populate the news for the next few days. It will be a noteworthy learning event for leaders who want to see what a leader should not do.
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
- Readers of theLeaderMaker.com have written to me about their bosses who are oblivious to the goings on in their organizations where they work. The frustration and anger they have experienced is real. Some voluntarily quit their jobs – a job they needed to support their family – because they couldn’t take it anymore. Others were fired by an incompetent boss.
- http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/the-whole-world-is-watching-our-clown-show.php
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-M0MZU7o10