11 Signs that You Have an Incompetent Manager.
And What to do About It.
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it,” wrote Laurence J. Peter in The Peter Principle, his 1968 satire in which everyone in an organization is promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. Eventually every position in the company contains someone who can’t do the job.
Unfortunately, Peter’s premonition seems to be as true today as it was 50 years ago. Despite spending $15 billion annually on managerial and leadership development, 64% of employees say that their manager doesn’t provide adequate support and 75% say that “their boss is the most stressful part of their workday.”
As companies continue to promote people based on an absence of weaknesses, rather than the presence of strengths, managerial ineffectiveness becomes the unfortunate norm. Yet employees don’t need to adopt a victim mindset. They have options. In many cases, even small steps can make a significant impact towards turning around a struggling manager.
It just depends on what level of incompetence you’re dealing with. And whether it’s worth your time to do something about it.
