Most people are promoted to the level of incompetence.

That may sound harsh, but I see it over and over again. As a matter of fact, it has a name. It’s called the Peter Principle.

Someone has strong technical expertise, and so they are promoted to manager. But they aren’t given the training to succeed in that role. So when performance review time comes around, they just check the boxes to try to get through it as quickly and painlessly as possible. They don’t know how to make the performance review meaningful for their direct reports in order to positively influence their behavior. So they go through the motions in giving the review, but don’t really know what they are doing, or how to maximize it for greatest impact.   [Read more…]