The third part of the podcast I was talking about back in November 2018 is the Peter Principle. Dan Couvrette, the CEO of Divorce Marketing Group and the publisher of Divorce Magazine and Family Lawyer Magazine (and also my boss) have — independently of me — talked about this principle in the editorial note of the latest print issue of the Family Lawyer Magazine (pg4).
What is the Peter Principle?
In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence. If you’re good at your job, your boss notices, promotes you. And then if you’re good at that job, it happens again. And you keep getting promoted until you get promoted to a job that you are not good at.
This principle also started as a satire (aka joke), when the author of this text, Laurence J. Peter, was debating why so many people are so bad at their job.
It can also say that being good at something can make your life miserable.
Just think about the educational system here.
Knowing about this principle is an answer. If you’re in a position of making a change, then this could be a solution. Not everyone’s good at all of it — that we already know — but not everyone is excellent in every aspect of the business that their good at.
