Reflection Leadership

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

We’ve all heard of the Peter Principle, the idea that in organizations, individuals rise to their highest level of incompetence. I’ve seen this happen time after time in organizations because when we look for those to promote, we tend to look at those who do their current job best.

So, in other words we tend to promote the best bank teller to Head Teller; the best customer service representative to Team Lead and so on. This dynamic tends to be repeated over and over again as we make our way up the organizational hierarchy. If we are the best at our job, we are brought to the attention of those above us and we get considered for higher level positions with greater and greater levels of leadership responsibility.

Sooner or later we will either find ourselves at the very top of the hierarchy with no more steps to take up or we find ourselves in a position where we’re no longer able to be the best in the position; we’ve reached our highest level of incompetence.

Being a Specialist

Over time I’ve observed that those that tend to hit their peak organizational level, especially while still farther down in the hierarchy tend to be those that we would consider specialists. They are very good at the technicalities of their job, but because they are so good at the technicalities and they have a deep knowledge of their field and position, they tend to become pigeonholed as an expert since other folks fail to see beyond this expertise and never consider that the individual knows anything else.

When we get pigeonholed as being a specialist, it becomes harder for us be seen as a leader, except in the area of our expertise. A lot of this has to do with the fact that when we are very good at what we do we are seen to have expertise power related to the work that we do. Unless we also happen to have an incredible amount of personal charisma, we will continually be known just as the expert in our area.

Being Deeply Read

Many of us go through our career trying to get a leg up on our co-workers by trying to accumulate as much knowledge as we can about our field or specific area. In fact, most corporate training programs support this activity by requiring that in order to receive reimbursement for workshops or courses, the material has to be relevant to our current job.

Also, take a look at the work related reading materials that you’ve recently looked at. I’d be willing to bet that they are all specifically related to your job or your industry.

To me, all of this emphasis on job or industry specific knowledge acquisition ends up making us deeply read…in one area. But some of our greatest thinkers have always been widely read, learning things from seemingly unrelated areas. This is what makes for leaders who can think strategically.

Being Widely Read

Twice I’ve worked for executive leaders who were examples of individuals who are widely read. Besides reading and keeping up on their respective industries, they also read more widely and were able to put into practice things that they learned that were unrelated to their own fields.

The first one worked with delinquent and at-risk youth. Because of his love of the outdoors, he found successful ways to combine what he learned about outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, rock climbing and other adventure-based activities with supporting the needs of both delinquent and at-risk youth and the systems they were part of.

The second one, after reading about studies run by one of the major telecommunication company recognized that his own company was falling short of retaining their clients because they were focusing on “satisfied” customers as opposed to “very satisfied” customers. This change lead to more focused attention on customer service that creates “very satisfied” customers.

There is no denying that we need to keep up with our field so that we understand the nature of our own business as things change. But if we want to be leaders that can think and act strategically, we also need be more widely read and be able to bring ideas from outside the field into our work. This isn’t just being strategic, it will help us to be innovative.

Leader’s Reflection: When we focus all of our learning on our specific job or field we become deeply read on the subject. Leaders who are able to think strategically are more widely read, finding unrelated information that can be synthesized into current practices.