Stuff you must read today (Sun, 16 Feb 2020) – The Explaining Incompetence Edition

Research: Do People Really Get Promoted to Their Level of Incompetence? | Harvard Business Review
A confirmation of The Peter Principle and how firms can manage around it: creating a structure in which top performers are rewarded with pay rather than promotion; and promoting, to managerial positions, staff who are above-average in individual contributor roles, but savvy in skillsets of leadership.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity | Carlo M. Cipolla
An essay by an Italian economic historian that provides an explanation for human behaviour in the world.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect Shows Why Some People Think They’re Great Even When Their Work Is Terrible | Forbes
“…many people are underperforming simply because they don’t know that they could be doing better or what really great performance looks like. It’s not that they’re necessarily being defensive, rather they just lack the knowledge. In fact, he told me that research subjects were willing to criticize their own previous poor skills once they were trained up and could see the difference between their previous poor performance and their new improved performance”.

If Humble People Make the Best Leaders, Why Do We Fall for Charismatic Narcissists? | Harvard Business Review
“…narcissistic individuals radiate ‘an image of a prototypically effective leader.’ Narcissistic leaders know how to draw attention toward themselves. They enjoy the visibility. It takes time for people to see that these early signals of competence are not later realized, and that a leader’s narcissism reduces the exchange of information among team members and often negatively affects group performance”.
Putt’s Law | davewentzel.com
“I really admire managers who follow the management-by-walking-around (MBWA) principle. This management philosophy is very simple: The best managers are those who leave their offices and observe. By observing they learn what the challenges are for their teams and how to help them better.

So, what I am looking for in a manager?
1. He knows he is the least qualified person to make a technical decision.
2. He is a facilitator. He knows how to help his technologists succeed.
3. MBWA.”