The Reverse Peter Principle at Work
By: Muehrcke, Jill
Issue: Jan/Feb/Mar 2016
Everyone in the nonprofit sector has experienced it. The Peter Principle is as discouraging, frustrating, and demoralizing as it is common.
Nonprofit workers who are great at what they do frequently end up as managers, even though management isn’t their strong point. That’s the essence of the Peter Principle: Excellent workers keep getting promoted till they end up in jobs they don’t care about or do well.
There’s a remedy for this familiar problem: Apply the Reverse Peter Principle. In other words, be a doer as well as a leader.
Even after you start leading others, continue to do some of the things you love. That way, you can pass on your passion to the people you lead and keep yourself from burning out. (Take a look at “How to Avoid Burnout”.)
Ask yourself: What is it you truly love to do? What brought you to the nonprofit sector in the first place? Was it working with clients? Then keep working with them: Don’t stop just because you’re also a leader.
Continue to get out in the field and renew your passion. Then carry it back to inspire others. That’s how you’ll keep enthusiasm for your organization’s mission.
Hiring for passion rather than management skills is a key leadership principle for Tracy Dolgin, CEO of Yes Network. When recruiting managers, he looks for doers, he explains in a New York Times interview with Adam Bryant. Instead of looking for management experience, he seeks people who are the best at their particular job. Then he encourages them to continue to do that job in addition to their management work.
Rather than subsuming people’s personal dreams in pursuit of team-building, great leaders take time to coach, support, and encourage each team member as an individual. They understand that when people feel free to pursue their passions, they’ll give more to the group as a whole. That’s what makes a powerful ensemble, as “Is There an ‘I’ in ‘Team’?” makes plain.
Leaders who take a strategic view of human resources have the best chance of success. They understand the need to infuse personnel principles with the organization’s mission, values, and credo to keep motivation high. (Turn to “Developing Your Organizational Team” and “Building Pride”)
It’s only natural that those who are passionate about their work are also joyful, resilient (check out “How Resilient Are You?”), and curious, continually seeking answers. “The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge,” as Thomas Berger would have it. Ask questions of yourself every day. Make sure your staff and board members are constantly querying themselves, too. (“Is Your Board Asking the Right Questions?” is a good place to start.)
Anything that goes for your paid staff goes for your volunteers too, of course. That’s just common sense – although common sense often flies out the windows when it comes to volunteers, as Susan Ellis explains in “Common-Sense Answers about Volunteer Involvement”.
While you may be effective on your own, you can increase your potency by forming partnerships with others. “The Best Leaders Are Change Agents” reinforces the importance of working together with a relentless determination to achieve results. That’s the best way to reverse the Peter Principle, build a high-performing organization, and lead with joy and purpose.
Four Things to Do Next Monday
Here are some concrete things you can do right away to improve your organization.
- Put into practice at least one of the countermeasures to the “deadliest fundraising mistake”.
- Ask yourself whether all your board members are as engaged in your organization as they can possibly be. See “Success through Engaged High-Level Board Members”.
- Choose one of the items under “Steps to Take” and plan to put it into action.
- Decide whether your board shows any of the common problems detailed in “Healing Governance Ills Requires the Right Diagnosis”. If so, apply the treatments suggested to solve them.
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