Lawrence J. Peter, co-author of the 1969 book, The Peter Principle, famously stated that, “Employees tend to get promoted to their level of incompetence.” Reflecting on this over the years has led me to the conclusion that Dr. Peter was both right and wrong. He was right that people tend to do well at work for a while, and then later to do less well. He had it right descriptively.
But he was wrong analytically. It isn’t “incompetence” that people tend to get promoted to; what people get promoted to is “leadership.”
It works like this. We enter the job world with a skill, a passion, or a degree. We apply ourselves. If we do well—in sales, accounting, customer service, you name it—we eventually get noticed. Our excellent work pleases our boss, and in due course, we get that phone call or email that says, “Stop over at my desk before you go home this evening.” Nervously, we stop, our boss nods vigorously to show full confidence in our rising star, and we get a grand promotion.
And that’s where the trouble starts!
The thing is this; we don’t get promoted to do more of what we showed skill in, have passion for, or studied in college. What we are promoted to is leadership, and leadership is a brand-spanking new job.
Now, our task is to help a group of people show up well, know why their work matters, understand expectations and specifications, make good decisions, learn to work well with others, handle their setbacks and failures, feel passionate about the meaningfulness of their work, and, yes, hit their targets on time, on budget, and excellently. Our previous skill and prowess doesn’t help us; in fact, the things we already know get in the way of what we now need to learn. Mid-stride, our job description was simply shredded, and in most cases replaced with a vague, “You’re in charge, now!”
Promotion to leadership shares a lot in common with becoming a parent. The behaviors that earned you the title are irrelevant to doing a good job in the role, and usually, no one is there to show you how. Few callings are as vitally important and demanding of excellence as leadership and parenthood, yet most new leaders, like most new parents, are left to their own devices to try to figure it out. And I believe we can safely say that the results are all over the board.
This is outrageous! We know, and real-life leadership case stories prove, what the behaviors and disciplines are that great leadership demands. We know what must be learned, how it is learned, how to measure it, and what brings growth and progress. And, yet, with the exception of a minority of great organizations in the world, new leaders are usually given scant to little guidance for this crucial task. Again, the parallels to parenthood are painfully obvious.
Early in my career, I worked for an organization that had a very limited vocabulary. Certain words and sentences were either unknown to them, or they were prohibited in a secret policy manual that they forgot to give me when I got hired. Here are some examples of things no one ever said:
- “Let me show you how we do that job here!” Orientation was non-existent, the need for training was an indication of a hiring mistake, and “management” meant keeping an eye out for those who couldn’t swim so they could be swiftly fired.
- “Do you understand what I’m expecting you to do?” Assignments landed on our desks like mailbags thrown at us from the saddlebags of a pony express rider galloping full tilt. We caught the assignments, and then we figured them out. Or we didn’t.
- “Need anything?” If my boss had asked me this question, I’d have shoved a thermometer in his mouth. It went without saying that we didn’t need anything; we were the ones he had hired, weren’t we?
- “That was great work, and here’s why!” No coddling at that job, that’s for certain! Explaining what made a great job great was tantamount to handing over secrets to the enemy!
As ridiculous as this behavior sounds, it’s as common as dirt. While these particular examples may be extreme, managers generally provide only a fraction of the guidance, training, support, and communication needed to accomplish great work and to gain truly charged up employees.
Within The Serving Leader Development System (SLDS), we provide a detailed 360° assessment that pinpoints specific management gaps that show managers where they are giving their workers what is needed, and where they are not. Several half- day training programs fix these gaps, providing application tools managers use to guide themselves in their responsibilities to grow, equip, support, and encourage their employees.
And for the leader or manager ready to sharpen their growth trajectory, our Serving Leader Cohorts – now offered in Chicago, Indianapolis, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., and Sugarcreek, Ohio – provide six full-day equipping sessions. Serving Leader Cohorts give leaders the opportunity to grow in their leadership within a group of 15 fellow leaders so that the learning can be strengthened by strong relationships and new partnerships.
Small, positive shifts by leaders and managers toward their employees make a big difference in employee morale, engagement, and productivity. It’s possible for new as well as veteran leaders to become true serving leaders and difference-makers for their people. What is required is a readiness to grow, a strong equipping framework that focuses on the concrete and specific leadership skills that produce organizational health, and a group of fellow-leaders to learn alongside of.