Peter Principle: When People Get Promoted Into Maximum Incompetence

People who are successful in big hierarchical organizations are promoted again and again until they reach a level of incompetence. 

Then they never get promoted again and are stuck there for life.

People will advance in their careers because they have high skills in a specific task. But when they are promoted, these skills are often irrelevant to the new job.

For example, a sales rep may be able to sell well, but when they are promoted to sales manager and don't receive training, they may not have the necessary skills to manage other people and might even be despised by their team. As a result, they may work harder to compensate for their lack of skills.

Lawrence Peter and Raymond Hull first introduced the Peter Principle in 1969. Since then, it has been often discussed in the area of leadership.

In 2018, researchers analyzed sales workers' performance and promotion practices and found that high-performing sales reps were more likely to be promoted, regardless of their managerial potential which led to high costs to the businesses.