The Painful Peter Principle
When I was first involved in an evangelical youth group, I was excited to be connected with young people who encouraged my newfound faith. Our youth group was sizable and was divided into three smaller sub-groups, each led by an adult leader and a teen helper.
The sub-group I joined was led by a quiet boy just a bit older than I. I really liked him, but I was much more outgoing than he was. I had more social skills and was comfortable speaking publicly. Though I didn’t seek it, I was made the teen leader of our group within a few months. The quiet boy disappeared and stopped attending youth group altogether.
I wasn’t trying to hurt the other boy. I was eager to participate. The adult leader saw that and promoted me. My promotion robbed the quiet boy of his place. I am occasionally haunted by the specter of that memory.
It’s called the Peter Principle. It’s a principle of business management but is applicable to many things in life. The Peter Principle notes that employers promote workers based on success in their current role, not in the ability to succeed in the next role. Eventually the worker rises to a level at which he is less than qualified, and his limited ability restrains the success of the larger organization. If the organization is to grow and develop, a more qualified person must replace the less skilled one.
I struggle with the Peter Principle, not because it’s false, but because it’s true.
My parents raised me to highly value faithfulness and perseverance. I was raised to keep my word, to see things through and to never give up. I was trained to be that way toward tasks and people. Never give up on others. Do what it takes to help them succeed. Be a faithful and loyal friend.
So, what do you do when you are managing a group, and a good soul with insufficient skills takes on a task and performs it faithfully to the best of their limited ability – maybe for a long time – and then a person gifted naturally with the knowledge and the skills, not only to do that same task, but to develop the role and take the entire endeavor to the next level, joins your group?
Which do you value more: the history of faithfulness and perseverance or the greater skills and better potential for future success?
This is a challenge in business, but also in ministry where the maturing of souls, not monetary profit, is the bottom line. It is a difficulty because it is a clash between two good things, both of which are important, and you, the leader, must make a choice of one over the other.
Be loyal to faithfulness and you bless that one faithful soul, perhaps to the detriment (or even the loss) of the rest.
Choose the greater skills and you may bring blessing to everyone else, but at the cost of injuring, perhaps irredeemably, that one faithful, valuable soul.
There are only hard answers to this dilemma, and no matter what you choose, you as a leader must find a way to minister to the unintended consequences of your choice. It comes with the territory of leadership.
The sub-group I joined was led by a quiet boy just a bit older than I. I really liked him, but I was much more outgoing than he was. I had more social skills and was comfortable speaking publicly. Though I didn’t seek it, I was made the teen leader of our group within a few months. The quiet boy disappeared and stopped attending youth group altogether.
I wasn’t trying to hurt the other boy. I was eager to participate. The adult leader saw that and promoted me. My promotion robbed the quiet boy of his place. I am occasionally haunted by the specter of that memory.
It’s called the Peter Principle. It’s a principle of business management but is applicable to many things in life. The Peter Principle notes that employers promote workers based on success in their current role, not in the ability to succeed in the next role. Eventually the worker rises to a level at which he is less than qualified, and his limited ability restrains the success of the larger organization. If the organization is to grow and develop, a more qualified person must replace the less skilled one.
I struggle with the Peter Principle, not because it’s false, but because it’s true.
My parents raised me to highly value faithfulness and perseverance. I was raised to keep my word, to see things through and to never give up. I was trained to be that way toward tasks and people. Never give up on others. Do what it takes to help them succeed. Be a faithful and loyal friend.
So, what do you do when you are managing a group, and a good soul with insufficient skills takes on a task and performs it faithfully to the best of their limited ability – maybe for a long time – and then a person gifted naturally with the knowledge and the skills, not only to do that same task, but to develop the role and take the entire endeavor to the next level, joins your group?
Which do you value more: the history of faithfulness and perseverance or the greater skills and better potential for future success?
This is a challenge in business, but also in ministry where the maturing of souls, not monetary profit, is the bottom line. It is a difficulty because it is a clash between two good things, both of which are important, and you, the leader, must make a choice of one over the other.
Be loyal to faithfulness and you bless that one faithful soul, perhaps to the detriment (or even the loss) of the rest.
Choose the greater skills and you may bring blessing to everyone else, but at the cost of injuring, perhaps irredeemably, that one faithful, valuable soul.
There are only hard answers to this dilemma, and no matter what you choose, you as a leader must find a way to minister to the unintended consequences of your choice. It comes with the territory of leadership.