You can tell a lot about an organization by the quality of the leaders it appoints.
Did you ever appoint someone to a role who failed badly?
Did you ever have an incompetent peer or boss and wonder how they got promoted?
Did you ever fail in a role you were entrusted with?
Why do some leaders fail to live up to the image that got them selected?
One explanation comes from a game all leaders play.
That game is between Attention and Achievement.
We all want achievement of results, but getting attention is vital to getting promoted.
Some people are really good at attracting attention.
When attention becomes more important than achievement, the wrong people can be promoted.
One reason lies in a trap of self confidence.
Humans follow other humans who are sure of themselves.
Confidence is vital to getting promotion.
If that confidence comes from experience and achievement, great.
But confidence can actually come from the opposite – a lack of experience & knowledge.
It’s called the Dunning Kruger effect.
Dunning Kruger explains how people with low capability can tend to over-estimate their knowledge.
We don’t know enough to know that we don’t know all the answers.
The more we learn, the less certain we are that we’re right.
If you’re looking to appoint or promote based on the confidence displayed by the candidates, beware.
Also beware of your own self-confidence that you can select the right candidate.
You’re not immune from Dunning Kruger.
It’s why external candidates, who we know little about, often seem more competent than internal candidates who we know well.
You can also fool yourself that the best available candidate is actually capable of doing the job.
“When attention becomes more important than achievement…the wrong people can be promoted…”
This kind of failure isn’t confined to self-promoters & extroverts.
All people want attention, they just want it in different ways.
We all have different love languages.
Extroverts want verbal & physical attention.
Highly agreeable people get attention by.. agreeing with you on everything.
Highly confrontational people seek attention by starting a fight.
Highly conscientious people will seek attention by working hard.
High ego individuals will seek attention by bragging.
High confidence people by asserting absolute confidence regardless of the challenge.
The game being played here is for the leader to choose what behaviors you pay attention to.
What gets your attention gets promoted.
If you favor loyalty, that’s what you’ll get.
If you favor self-confidence, that’s what you’ll get.
If you favor one gender, that’s what you’ll get.
If you favor hard work, that’s what you’ll get.
If you’re not consciously focused on achievement of results, don’t be surprised if the people you appoint or promote don’t get results.
That’s why you can tell a lot about an organization by the quality of the leaders it appoints.
Do you appoint or promote people?
What gets your attention?
Are you focused on their achievements?
Is that what gets promoted?
How confident are you that you can do the role you aspire to?
Be careful what you pay attention to.
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“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”