The Peter Principle could be your barrier to success

Over the past year, I have had numerous conversations with women who were aspiring for roles in senior leadership but were being denied promotions, often without a clear explanation of why or what they lacked.

They had done everything they thought they needed to do: demonstrate competence in their field, run their projects efficiently, manage the difficult personalities around them without complaint, say yes to everything that was asked of them, put their work ahead of their personal commitments, etc.

But beyond a certain point, this way of being was getting them nowhere.

The Peter Principle suggests that we all have a point within a hierarchy where we meet our incompetence.

Simply put, there is a role that puts us out of our depth, where we no longer demonstrate the progress that is expected at that level.

So the promotions that these women expected - after a certain number of years in a role, after achieving the milestones expected of them - never materialised, unfortunately.

When I speak with them, I can sense that they are missing two vital skills: communicating their own value, and demonstrating the value they can create for their teams.

It’s a whole different mindset and way of thinking and being to what they have known.

This is a difficult problem to diagnose by yourself, unless you have a trusted advisor who can reflect to you how you present to the outside world. Because you don’t know what you don’t know.

And even more difficult to remedy on your own, unless that trusted advisor is a coach who can see both your current shortcomings and your future potential and help you narrow the gap between the two. Because you cannot change what you cannot see.

Now if you are reading this and you are still at the outset of your career, you have agility on your side: you are not yet set in your ways, you are rewarded for showing a growth mindset and you are not yet expected to have it all figured out.

This is why I created the Leadership Lab for emerging women leaders under the age of 33.

I am personally invested in ensuring that the next generation of women doesn't encounter those invisible obstacles that hold back both their career progression, and on a larger scale, gender equity.

The question is, are you equally invested too?

If the answer is no, then that’s fine, because you will reach that point in your career eventually where you can keep doing what you do and remain comfortable at that level.

But if you are more ambitious about your career progression, or let’s face it, more pragmatic in a world where jobs and titles are getting more competitive by the day, then you want to be intentional and arm yourself with every competence and quality to bypass the Peter Principle and ensure your long-term success.

The Leadership Lab is aimed at helping you develop those very skills and qualities, and guess what, your development plan will be personalised to you, even though the programme is run for a group of women like you.

If you want to find out how, your next step is simply to book a conversation with me. Remember, enrolment closes next Wednesday.