There’s an awful lot of people in senior leadership positions who, quite frankly, shouldn’t be there. So why are they there?
Leaders often reach their positions through one of the following pathways:
- They’re great at their job so when a leadership position becomes available they’re promoted. Let’s call this the PERCEIVED ABILITY pathway.
- They’ve been with the company for many years so when a leadership position becomes available they’re promoted. Let’s call this the PERCEIVED LOYALTY pathway.
The Perceived Ability Pathway
Freya is an experienced salesperson for a car showroom and she’s awesome at building trust, impressing potential customers, and converting them into buyers. She has the highest sales figures in the whole team. When the director of sales decides to move on to a different company, Freya’s promoted because she’s been the top seller.
She’s now leading a team of salespeople from her new office next to the finance director. She’s producing and looking at reports every day, discussing strategy with the general manager, and managing the ups and downs of her team.
But Freya has never had any real leadership training and she misses the showroom floor, the interactions with customers, and the excitement of closing a deal.
At this point, the company has not only gained an inexperienced and ineffective team leader, they’ve also lost their best salesperson.
The Perceived Loyalty Pathway
Loki joined a tour company as a guide when he was fresh out of school. For the next ten years he guided speedboat tours, leading guests through planned itineraries on a daily basis. He was never the top performer and his guest reviews were average. After all, he only became a guide because he thought it would be a fun way to meet people and he hated office jobs.
When the lead guide left due to ill health, Loki was promoted to lead guide because he had been there the longest out of all the guides. Five years later, the operations manager of the tour company moved on and Loki suddenly found himself as the new manager because, as lead guide, he was next in line and had been with the company for a long time.
The fact is that Loki had been there a long time not out of any particular loyalty to the company but because he was comfortable. The office was near his house and he enjoyed the easygoing nature of the work. No stress. No pressure. There was no need for him to change jobs. He had never been a particularly ambitious person and he only ever did enough to get by.
Leadership Is Not For Everyone
In both of these examples, leadership positions were handed out as a reward for either good work or longevity. While these are fictional examples, they illustrate the problem that so many organizations create for themselves – putting the wrong people in team leadership positions.
Not everyone is suited to being a leader and not everyone wants to be a leader.
For example, one of the responsiblities of a leader is to drive their team forward, leading the way through changing times. This requires energy and enthusiasm and sometimes a bit of risk-taking. A pioneering spirit let’s say. But not everyone is a pioneer of course.
What do we think will happen if a junior team member is full of ideas and vigour but is always held back by their boss who won’t even consider a change because “we’ve always done it this way”.
This is the type of response you often get from a leader who has followed the perceived loyalty pathway. It sounds harsh (and paradoxical even) but I’ll say it anyway. An individual may be a team leader precisely because they lack the desire and inclination to be one. It was a lack of interest and enthusiasm that meant they never left and so, over time, they inadvertently fell into the leadership slot.
Is this the type of leader that we really want? Is this the type of leader who will help drive the company forward? Is this the type of leader that will support and guide team members towards better things?
The Peter Principle
This management principle states that an employee continues to receive promotions and rise through the ranks until they reach a position of incompetence. So, the higher an individual rises within a hierarchy, the more likely they are to fail.
The two pathways to leadership outlined above both illustrate the Peter Principle. I’m not saying that it’s impossible for an individual to rise through the ranks on merit. Of course this can happen. As we gain experience, we improve. Individuals that show leadership potential are noticed and the best leaders rise to the top. This is how it should be.
All I’m saying is that the Peter Principle is far too common within organisations and can result in:
- Increased stress for the out-of-place leader.
- Detrimental effects on the rest of the team such as low morale.
- Increased staff turnover.
- Decreased productivity.
- Poor decision-making.
- Lack of innovation.
- An increase in errors, mistakes, and accidents within a department.
- Customer dissatisfaction.
- Brand damage for the organisation.
- Lost revenue.
How To Prevent The Peter Principle?
- Develop an effective succession plan for key positions.
- Commit to continuous learning and leadership training programs.
- Adequately assess leadership potential in candidates for promotion.
- Have honest conversations with potential candidates for promotion.
- Provide adequate leadership skills training BEFORE promotion.
- Conduct regular feedback sessions.
- Don’t be afraid to look outside the organisation to find the right leader.
- Offer higher pay for loyal workers without promotion.
- Have open conversations if a promotion does not work out.
- Understand that leadership is not the same as management.