Clearly we have all seen evidence of this and there is a very clear reason for it. Most people get promoted because they were good (?) at the job they were doing, not because they have shown an aptitude for what will be required at the next level. How many partners do you know who, while being a partner, do "good" "staff" level work? (almost all of them) How many partners do you know who are really good at managing the business of a firm? (almost none of them). This is similar to a great Widget maker with decades worth of experience making Widgets deciding to own / run a Widget business and making a mess of it. While the two functions (producing / managing) are not mutually exclusive they are not at all similar and require very different skill sets that are not commonly held by the same individual. The first self-help / business book I'm going to write is "Know Your Role - Identify What Your Talent Is, Do It, And Quit Doing The Stuff You Suck At" or something to that effect.
People promote others who are similar to themselves (a.k.a - "The Cycle of Suck").
We all fall prey to the "Cycle". The Cycle is why good companies / businesses go bad and why good relationships go bad. If we would just consider what roles we need to fill and go about finding people with talents for those roles and understand that no one person is going to magically transform themselves into something / someone they are not, we would be moving in a positive direction. Some of the roles that immediately come to mind are:
- Employee
- Employer
- Manager
- Owner
- Breadwinner
- Care Giver
- Finder
- Minder
- Grinder
What do you think? What other roles can you think of that people in your life play?
