There is a sobering maxim, called the “Peter Principle[1],” that is readily observed in nearly every organization. That is, “managers rise to the level of their incompetence.” It looks like this:

The word “failure” connotes somebody crashing and burning. More often leaders, especially senior leaders, don’t fail spectacularly. Instead, they hit their ceiling. They stagnate. They get in their own way.

They are no longer able to produce new success. So, they redefine success as maintaining and holding on to the status quo. Or survival. They are no longer able to provide lift or growth to the organization.

They may even prevent others who are trying to produce that lift or growth.

There are many reasons, or thinking errors, that cause someone to hit this ceiling. However, two related ones may be the most common. Both revolve around an unhealthy relationship with expertise:

Thinking Error 1: “I Need to Be the Expert at Anything I’m Involved In”

I’m not sure if this is due to insecurity or pride. Maybe those are two sides of the same coin. Either way, it is a significant problem when a leader believes that he or she needs to be the smartest person in every room to feel comfortable. They’ll demonstrate one or more of the following behaviors:

• Developing a rigid and self-deluded reality where they believe because they are an expert on “A” then they are also an expert at “B.”
• Avoiding rooms where they may not be the smartest person.
• Pushing the actual smartest person(s) out of the room they happen to be in.

These won’t always manifest as arrogant, brash behavior. Although, it can often look like that.

To the contrary, this attitude often manifests as appearing very humble and self-effacing. The world is full of small business owners who should be running medium or large businesses but are unwilling or unable to step out of their comfort zone of “expertise.” This applies to any other sector as well: Government, non-profit or religious institutions.

It is very common in fields that produce genuine, highly trained and specialized experts: IT, law, medicine, engineering, behavioral/mental health, religious institutions, etc. Also, self-made men and women often demonstrate this trait. They needed to do everything to get to where they are at – don’t suggest that they should rely on or trust someone else.

Thinking Error 2: I’m Not the Expert So I Don’t Get Involved

This can come from actual deference to the experts. But it can also stem from insecurity. Either way, it is negligent for a leader to “not get involved” or “leave it to the experts.”

Boards (any kind) often demonstrate this willingness to be negligent. Of course, it isn’t framed as negligence. Instead, it is framed as, “Our leader/people/team is amazing! We trust them completely!” Due diligence is set aside.

Senior leaders can often make this mistake as well. A CFO may say, “I’m the numbers woman. I don’t need to understand the needs of our customers.” The VP of HR may say, “I deal with recruitment, training, and compliance. I’m up to my eyeballs in workshops. I don’t have time to understand strategy.”

How to Be Superb Without Being an Expert

A number of years ago, I was working with an Alaska Native organization called Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CTIC.) CITC employs several hundred people and is a major, regional social services provider.

I was incredibly impressed that their IT director was involved in all the leadership development and strategy work that I was doing. He made the comment that understanding the actual mission, needs, desires and frustration of all the other department leaders helped him understand how to better serve them through his department.

Who hears that from IT? This guy got it. He was taking the time to learn just enough. He was comfortable leaving his actual expertise at the door (no one asked him to) and being a learner and asking questions. He was oriented towards everyone else’s success. He understood that his department only really shined if he was able to help everyone else shine.

The right attitude, for anyone who wants to excel at leadership, is to:

1. Learn to know just enough. Just enough technical literacy to understand what others are saying. Just enough proficiency to be able to discuss performance. Just enough.
2. Learn to be comfortable being the dummy or become an expert at asking the right questions. I make my living being the dummy. I don’t know very much about a lot of things. But I’m really good at asking the right questions. I don’t have to know the answers. I just have to know enough be able to pull the answers out of others. It’s the same for excellent leaders.
3. Facilitate everyone else’s success. Great leaders realize that their expertise is often irrelevant to their role as “leader.” They can build greater and more sustained success by getting more out of the expertise of others. So, they learn just enough to know how to do that.

If you want to avoid the “Peter Principle.” If you are hiring or promoting people into senior positions of leadership and you want to avoid placing them into a position where they won’t succeed, look for:

1. Someone who doesn’t demonstrate the thinking errors described above: Needing to be an expert or leaving everything to the experts.
2. Someone who is able to learn just enough, willing to be a dummy, able to understand that a leader’s job is to facilitate the success of others.

This article is the fifths in a series of articles on how to build a rock-star leadership team. You can read more here.

How to Build a Superb Leadership Team That Breaks Through Ceilings

Would you like to build a unified, high-performing team? Would you like to work with a team that gives you confidence, a sense of peace and courage to move your organization forward?

If your answer is YES, then I have something special for you. But it is limited. I am available for a 30 minute, one on one strategy call. On this call, I can answer your specific questions and provide specific strategies you can use to improve team effectiveness that will help you attract, retain, and get the most out of your leaders, strengthening organizational culture and operational results.

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[1] Named for the management theory first published by Laurence J. Peter in 1969.