Promotions reward doing your current job well — but the next job is a different job. People keep rising until they reach a role they can't do well, and there they stay.
The Peter principle: in a hierarchy, people rise based on success in their current role — until they land in one they're not good at, and there they stay.
The best engineer gets promoted to manage engineers — a completely different skill. If she's great at it, she rises again; if she's mediocre, she stops. Either way the system keeps promoting people out of the work they're good at and into work they may not be.
Educator Laurence J. Peter named this the Peter principle: in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their "level of incompetence." Because promotion rewards performance in the current role — not the new one — people stop being promoted only once they reach a job they do poorly. The unsettling implication: over time, roles fill with people no longer suited to them.
Spot it by separating "great at this job" from "would be great at the next." Before chasing or handing out a promotion, ask whether the new role is the same work scaled up or a genuinely different skill. Sometimes the best move is to grow within a role you excel at — not up into one you won't.
It explains a lot of dysfunctional management — and helps you choose advancement that plays to your strengths instead of away from them.
Read as "incompetent people get promoted." It's more structural: people are promoted for doing their current job well, until they reach a role they're not good at — then they stop rising and stay there. Everyone tends to rise to their level of incompetence. The fix is rewarding good work without forcing a role change.
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