Scientific Definition
People are promoted until they reach a position where they are incompetent.
Plain-English Definition
People are promoted until they reach a position where they are incompetent.
Feynman Explanation
The best coder becomes a manager and becomes a bad manager.
Core Principle
People are promoted until they reach a position where they are incompetent.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
People are promoted until they reach a position where they are incompetent.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Promotions often reward past performance, not future competence.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The best coder becomes a manager and becomes a bad manager.
Examples
- A top salesperson promoted to sales manager struggles to lead.
- Promotions often reward past performance, not future competence.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Create separate tracks for technical and managerial advancement.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Create separate tracks for technical and managerial advancement.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Incompetent employees are promoted to management to limit their workflow damage.
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.
Sacrificing for others without expecting a personal reward.
Masking the sponsors of a message to make it appear grassroots.
Disagreement grows more extreme as the parties think more about the issue.
Systematic errors in explaining the causes of behavior — yours or others'.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Adding the word 'because' (with any reason) increases compliance dramatically.
Behaviors spread through groups via observation and imitation.