PETER AND HULL’S PETER PRINCIPLE
Use this to deal with people who are being considered for promotion.
Lawrence Peter and Raymond Hull proposed the principle that people are promoted to their highest level of competence, after which further promotion raises them to a level just beyond this and they become incompetent. This can be depicted as:
The Peter Principle levels are as follows.
Unconscious incompetence: Someone who doesn’t know how to do something, but are totally oblivious to the fact that they don’t know this.
Conscious incompetence: They now know what it is they need to do, and start to appreciate the gap in their competence.
Conscious competence: Now they can do what it is they need to do, but have to give it a lot of thought and effort.
Unconscious competence: At last they can perform a skill easily without giving it a great deal of thought or effort.
Unconscious incompetence: The danger with doing things without thought or effort is that complacency might set in and result in a return to the first level.
Peter and Hull argue that the value of the principle for managers is an understanding of why staff may reach and stay at one of these levels, or reach the highest level and then return to a lower level due to complacency in the role.
HOW TO USE IT
The usefulness of this theory is in challenging the belief that the selection of a candidate for promotion should be based on their performance in their current role, rather than on their ability relevant to the intended role. Here are six ways to beat the Peter Principle:
- Don’t fall into the trap of believing that competence in someone’s current role suggests they will be competent in a higher level role.
- Match the person’s capabilities with the demands of the job. Your starting point should be an analysis of the skills required to achieve success in the new role.
- Talk to employees about their career expectations and interests about holding a higher position. This will help in analysing where they would like to see themselves and whether they are satisfied with their current role or not. In this way they won’t be compelled to do something that they are not comfortable about.
- Realise that it’s not always necessary to promote employees who are good in their existing jobs. Sometimes, without any significant change in their responsibilities, you can reward them for their hard work by offerings other incentives.
- Don’t be afraid of demoting or sacking people who have reached their level of incompetence. This may sound harsh but it can be a win-win situation because the individual who is at their level of incompetence may welcome an opportunity to return to what they did well (provided there is a face-saving way to do it).
- If you have promoted an individual and discover that they are not competent at that level, additional training, mentoring or shadowing someone who is competent may give them the tools they need to succeed.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- Have I accurately identified which factors in the person’s current job have prepared them for promotion?
- Have I thought through what weaknesses they have that need to be addressed so they have the capacity to carry out the future role?