In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence
You may recognise that quote from The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, which I’ve just started reading thanks to Alexander and James, organizers of the Agile Leadership Book Club meetup.
The Peter Principle suggests the most skilled people get promoted - a factory floor mechanic into a supervisor role, then into management if they perform well there too. This continues until they’re no longer a top performer. On the surface it sounds reasonable. But the first chapter closes with:
In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.
When asking claude to review this post, it suggested I ask where you’ve seen this playout. But I’m not sure asking you to publicly call out incompetence here is a good idea!?!
I’ve only read the first chapter, but it looks like the book is full of zingers, so I’m keen to carry on. Why not pick up a copy of the book and join the upcoming Agile Leadership Book Club sessions (August 18th and September 1st) and be part of the discussion?