Have you ever noticed how many of our leaders – presidents, CEOs, generals and admirals, prime ministers, and kings – are unsuitable to their position?
Of course the Peter Principle plays a part – many were talented in lower level positions, but have simply been promoted to their level of incompetence.
But there is another factor in play here – it often takes a different skill set to win the position than to function effectively in it. A CEO may reach his/her position by being expert in brutal office politics, but that is not the skill set needed to be an effective CEO. A general or admiral may get promoted to the rank by never taking risks and therefore having no blots on his/her record. But an effective military leader has to be able to take calculated risks. Presidents and prime ministers get where they are by being good at partisan politics, but the job requires a broader perspective than that.
One advance the world could use is a better way of promoting people to top jobs – one that improves the odds that they can really do the job once they get it.
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