Have you heard of the “Peter Principle”?
It was coined by Laurence Peter in his 1969 book, “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.” Peter claimed that he was surrounded by gross professional incompetence everywhere he looked and claimed to have discovered the root cause of manager incompetence.
Case in point: A leading restaurant chain in Kampala hired me to Coach floor staff in client experience. In the group coaching sessions there were good people but Daphne was a unicorn. She knew her guests by name, what they ordered and where they liked to sit.
During the 6-month coaching sessions the position of floor supervisor fell vacant and someone needed to fill it. My client and I saw it as a no brainer to promote Daphne to the position of supervisor but that was a huge mistake.
“Mr. Sudesh I miss being on the floor; greeting guests, serving them and getting my tips of course”, Daphne confessed to me after two months in the position of supervisor.
Daphne had been promoted from a position of competence to a position of incompetence. Through observation, I noticed the same thing this happening to every employee in every hierarchy who was promoted- at least for the most part.
The Peter Principle says , In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence
I have seen many Daphnes in my career. A good associate is promoted to partner because he/she excels at legal work. An employee self promotes him/herself to entrepreneur because he/she has accumulated savings to start a business. A Bishop leading a Diocese being promoted to Cardinal.
The Peter Principle is based on the paradoxical idea that competent employees will continue to be promoted, but at some point will be promoted into positions for which they are incompetent, and they will then remain in those positions because of the fact that they do not demonstrate any further competence that would get them recognized for additional promotion.
After watching the dynamics, it was evident we had make a mistake to promote Daphne. We “demoted” her. Years later she’s still serving guests on the floor. Most importantly she’s happy doing it.
According to the Peter Principle, every position in a given hierarchy will eventually be filled by employees who are incompetent to fulfill the job duties of their respective positions.
In my subsequent projects I have always advised my clients against slowing down operations because of the Peter Principle.
I encourage my clients to provide adequate skill training for employees prior to receiving any promotion, and to ensure the training is appropriate for the position to which they have been promoted.
