There’s a curious principle around promotions in the business world known as the “Peter Principle.” The concept states that companies reward their best employees with promotions to positions like manager and team lead.
However, these new managers, brilliant in the roles they were hired for and for which they were completely qualified for, don’t tend to have the knowledge or abilities to carry out the new roles they were assigned to in their promotion. This turns them into incompetent employees. A new study has evaluated the impact of this incompetence and put a number on it, finding that 33% of workers quit because of it.
Managers that aren’t qualified to do their job. According to the study by the Chartered Management Institute, or CMI, which interviewed 4,500 workers and managers in the UK, 1 in every 4 people of working age occupy a manager role. Nonetheless, very few of them have the necessary training to carry out the role.
The study found that 82% of managers have their role because of the Peter Principle, which led researchers to consider them “accidental mangers” given that they obtained the role as a reward without having the necessary training for it. In other words, these workers have been promoted to management roles for being very good in other roles, but they don’t have the necessary education or abilities to be managers.
The impact of “incompetence.” As a result of the lack of effective leadership in their teams and the coordination of their teams, 1 in every 3 workers is thinking in quitting their job over the next year because they’re not comfortable with their bosses’ management style. In fact, 28% of the people surveyed and 31% of managers have already left a previous job for this reason.
In general terms, 51% of managers don’t have the necessary training for their current jobs, which means that their success in these roles depends on their natural social abilities or derives from a high rate of mobility in their department. The survey found notable differences in situations where the manager had adequate training and others where they didn’t.
Only 15% of employees with an “accidental manager” reported feeling valued by their bosses compared to 72% of those that have a boss that’s been trained to be one. Furthermore, 34% stated that they were motivated by their “incompetent” superiors compared to the 77% that felt the same with an efficient manager.
The same thing happens when it comes to job satisfaction, where 27% of those who work under an “accidental boss” say they’re satisfied with their job. In comparison, 74% of those working for a boss with specific training for the role reported being satisfied.
It’s not a new phenomenon. CMI’s study highlights a trend that’s been on the rise since 2019. According to the company’s own data, approximately 68% (or 2.4 million) of the 3.4 million active managers in the UK were part of the “accidental manager” category.
In the 2024 edition, the number of managers that weren’t qualified to do their job increased to 82%, benefitting from the “promotion to incompetence” practice defined by the Peter Principle. The practice is widespread in the business world. 46% of mangers recognize that many of them have been promoted because of their relationships with others at the company and their current job, not because of their leadership skills.
The solution: Invest in training. Managers are aware of this problem. The study reveals that 1 in every 5 is aware that this is happening and don’t trust their own leadership skills. They also recognize that they’re incapable of managing the problems related to leading a team. This stresses them out and is one of the main motivations that middle managers quit.
The study found that 33% of managers admitted to never undergoing a single training session for the role. CMI’s data reveals that the companies that do invest in training programs for their leaders improve their efficiency by 23% and improve their employees’ satisfaction and productivity by 32%.
Image | Sebastian Herrmann
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