Key qualification of laziness & incompetence as a recipe for success: Incapable bosses thanks to the Peter principle

Who does not know them, the incompetent bosses, with whom everyone Employees asks: How did he get into the management position? Probably thanks to a lot of pomposity - and the Peter principle. Find out how here.

Only the good guys work ...

“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to level up to their inability level…. After a period of time, each position is filled by an employee who is unable to carry out his task. ”

The short film embedded above by Kathrin Albers, Jim Lacy and Nils Hartlef received the 2007 Business Prize and shows very nicely: In our businessSystem the others work: namely those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

The incompetents are promoted

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In his well-known book “Dilbert Principle”, cartoonist Scott Adams even goes one step further: He says that companies deliberately promote their incompetent employees to middle management because that is where they can cause the least damage. Or as Adams puts it: “The executive floor is an attempt by nature to keep idiots out of the production process.

What follows inevitably is what I already have in my book on perfectionism wrote: Those who always do their work particularly well are at a disadvantage on the career ladder! What to do instead Career book author Hermann Rühle describes:

Lazy in the management

Wait for something to take care of itself. If not, get your personal best and get it fast still go. Wait for someone else to do it. After all, the work goes where it is done. Avoid being there if possible.

In short: the real recipe for success is to let others do your work as far as possible. This is also one of the core statements of the video shown above: Accordingly, laziness is one of the most important key qualifications for management, because these employees, out of sheer laziness, look for the simplest, most economical Solution search.

Always nice to make a stupid!

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Intelligent, dedicated people are left with only one solution - and the one that betrays the film: feigning incompetence in order to be promoted. Apparently, bosses prefer incompetent employees so as not to jeopardize their own position.

So always make a fool of you, then also works with the promotion! Reminds me by the way Corinne Maier and one Blog post I used to be a career obstacle intelligence some time ago wrote. (Attention: Of course the post is meant ironically ...)

Felt bosses and other busybodies

And that creates difficult situations for employees. Like this one: Actually, you have something completely different. But suddenly one is forced to deal with some junk, because ER occurs suddenly on the plan: The Busyness!

Often provided with a good deal of profile neurosis, he makes a lot of noise for nothing, for a complete triviality and one wonders what actually happened and what he is so excited about.

At first, one is quickly tempted to dismiss the whole thing as what it is: pomposity. But that only irritates the busybody even more, because he's in his Significance have to puff up. So ignoring is a very bad solution.

Colleagues playing

Because even if it is only a felt superior: If he wants, he still finds a way to drive you to the cart. And the more you feel the superiority, the more he wants! Incidentally, also factors such as new job skills and similar uncertainties in the job cause such behaviors.

And while you are still slurping on your coffee cup, in the hope of the values ​​colleague will calm down again, the disaster takes its course!

He's always right - but ...

So what to do? Accept. Just tell the busybody. Do what he wants. Even if it hurts first. But then you can fight back with the punker's own weapons, just exaggerating a bit:

It then helps, as far as possible, to transfer the responsibility very subtly to the busybull, because he wanted it so - and he has now! Even if it costs some overcoming at the beginning.

4 tips to classify other people

Speaking of the coffee cup: it helps, here People to assess correctly. The coffee cup can help with that. If you look at one Office to be more precise, there is a different coffee mug on every desk. And it reveals a lot about its owner, as the Hamburg psychologist Annika Lohstroh explains.

1. The dreamer: For example, people who prefer to sip their coffee from a holiday souvenir would have a good portion of wanderlust, according to Annika Lohstroh. By reaching for the cup, these “dreamers” chased after memories. "A souvenir like this can very well sweeten your break in your stressful everyday life: You briefly dream back into a distant, foreign world to draw strength and take a breath," said the psychologist.
2. The offensives: The “offensives” are different, whose favorite cups always cause a laugh thanks to a cool saying. “At first glance, this mug signals 'I don't take life so seriously'”, explains Annika Lohstroh. At second glance, however, the cup serves as a kind of protective wall behind which fears are hidden. The brisk saying (e.g. “It wasn't me”) takes the wind out of the sails of critics immediately.
3. The demanding ones: Proper service from a cup and saucer is important to the “demanding”. Her motto: "If coffee, then please with style". "Anyone who enjoys their coffee in this way places value on good manners," says the psychologist. The discerning don't like things by halves and have a penchant for perfectionism.
4. The Cavalier: Quite the opposite of the "carefree", the advocate of the paper cup from the coffee shop: this embodies a certain nonchalance. Lohstroh says that those who prefer coffee from the disposable cup go through life in a relaxed and carefree manner.

Whether one can say that so simply and flatly, is put there. For I know for each of the illustrated examples also counterexamples. But it's always interesting what coffee cups can tell about our fellow human beings.

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