Stuck in your career because you’re simply too good at your job?
It’s time to update the Peter Principle in this post-modern work era.
Peter Principle definition: Where in a business hierarchy people rise to their level of incompetence. If a person is good at their job, they will be promoted and rise up and learn new competencies until they reach a level where they aren’t able to learn and get stuck. They will not qualify for promotion again, and so they stay at the Peter Plateau, blocking the way for other employees to rise about them.
I’m sure you’ve met a few Peters or Petras in your time.
The Peter Principle was published in 1969. Originally a satire, it quickly became the handbook for explaining why career advancement in hierarchical organisations didn’t work.
55 years later it is time for an update.
The Post-Modern Peyton Principle
There aren’t that many Peters or Petras left, unless they are working in the government. In the 1990’s companies followed Jack Welch’s mantra of laying off the bottom 10% of performers, then post 2000 there have been non-stop rounds of restructuring.
There is a new way to get stuck in your career – ironically by being too good at your job.
Surely being good at your job guarantees you a career.
It guarantees you a job but not a career.
Becoming an expert that your company can’t afford to lose, and you’ll have a great job. However, you get stuck on repeat and never promoted.
Take the case of Peyton. I had to update the name as only the royals call their children old-fashioned names like Peter.
Peyton was promoted to programme manager for a company with 15 manufacturing plants worldwide. The first rollout of the new ERP system was a real exciting challenge and the second – but not the third, and the challenge started to wear off. After four years and having rolled out nine rollouts in the last 12 months, Peyton was made redundant. The programme is finished. Well done.
Super job. It’s great that you managed the roll out in a super fast time. Handshake, reference letter, garden leave, and goodbye!
Oh, I should have seen that coming, says Peyton. My fault for not having been active in managing my career in the last few years. But I was so busy with the programme management.
Similar self-blame I heard when I met Paloma. Now coming to her mid-40s, she worked hard doing the family work juggle. For many years she’s been the consultant in the office who knows how to write the reports the EU needs to maintain their research & development funding grants. Now, with her 50s approaching, kids independent, she’s looking to grow, learn, and waiting on a promotion decision. No, as they can’t do without her expertise. So they changed her title and gave her a little more pay.
Both people are competent employees, very competent. They ended up solving the same problems over and over again. There is pressure and stress to deliver in timelines that create a challenge, but the actual content now is boring. Instead of learning, instead of being promoted, they are trapped in their careers, stalled as experts, knowing more and more about less and less until their expertise is not needed and they are laid off.
The Post-modern Peter Principle
According to the theory, you will stay at your level of competence all the time that your company needs you. You become more and more of an expert solving similar problems repeatedly about a smaller and smaller area of knowledge until you are bored. Eventually, your job is replaced or no longer required, and then you’ll be made redundant.
Avoiding the Post-modern Peter Principle
Ironically the answer to being too good at your job isn’t to start being bad at your job. Instead, consider these recommendations to take control of your career:
- Take control of your career – don’t expect or wait for your employer’s performance and promotion practices to determine your next move. You need to be in charge and plan your next move.
- Find a mentor or, better, a sponsor – don’t leave your career just up to you. Find a mentor or ideally a sponsor that will help you brainstorm to develop your career.
- Don’t be too humble – learn to promote your success and how you have added value to your company, e.g. tell them how you’ve solved their problem that saved them millions.
- Expand your mind – take a course, try something new, learn something you want to, away from your usual work to break the boredom: fresh challenges.
- Don’t sacrifice your life for your career—common in these high-pressure problem-solving roles – your productivity is drained as you work long hours to deliver to deadlines. Keep the balance, keep healthy and remember they are paying for your years of experience, not the hours you work.
If you feel you’re stuck as a mid-career expert in a narrowing field and struggling to be recognised for promotion, then let’s have a chat. Also, why not try the mid-career audit and find out if you are letting your career get out of control. Proactively managing your career will help you grow and thrive in this ever-evolving work environment.
