History Main / ThePeterPrinciple

This often results when the skills required to do a job well are very different from those required to manage people doing that job, from the military to education to sales. A classic example is a teacher being promoted into a principal - two jobs that require ''vastly'' different skillsets, yet the latter is one of the few obvious career paths for the former. Alternatively, sometimes the very qualities that make a character good at one job are diametrically opposed to the qualities they need in the job they're promoted to, like a charismatic politician whose confidence makes them too headstrong to properly compromise, or a cautious and careful analyst being put in a position of leadership that requires taking decisive action.

* In the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', it's said that this was the fate of Eárnur, the last King of Gondor (before Aragorn that is). He was an excellent military commander and one of the strongest warriors alive when he was out on campaign; but when he became King, his recklessness and obsession with battle became his undoing. Despite the massive importance of the line of succession, he refused to take a wife, and his obsession with honor resulted in him ultimately sallying out to duel the Witch-King of Angmar, [[TooDumbToLive from which he never returned.]]

* ''Fanfic/PrehistoricParkReimagined'': Over the course of the first two 'phases' of the story, it becomes increasingly clear that main protagonist Drew Luczynski, while incredibly talented in his position as the rescue team leader for the titular ExtinctAnimalPark, is hardly the ideal choice for his additional position as the park's manager. For as is revealed in Phase 2, the same recklessness and preference to act in the moment that make him an ideal leader to have in the unpredictable and incredibly dangerous field of rescuing and rounding up prehistoric animals in the wild and resolve in progress animal escapes at the park also causes him to largely ignore unpleasant issues unfolding at the park and amongst his staff and do nothing to resolve them until after they've become impossible to ignore and have usually already resulted in someone either getting hurt or at the very least inconvenienced. And as if that weren't enough, the similarly rescue team leader worthy passion he has for the animals and successfully achieving the missions over all else causes him to largely consider any duties he has to do at the park that don't directly involve either of these as lower priority, which results in him engaging in massive amounts of procrastination in completing and filing paperwork and often trying to pass his other administrative duties on to other people even when they've already got enough to do in the tasks they're already supposed to be doing in positions that don't involve such duties. Tellingly, these details, plus several other serious character flaws he displays, leads to his superiors at local MegaCorp Novum to start strongly considering hiring an additional pair of managers for the park that can cover his weaknesses as a manager while also allowing him to have all the more time to focus entirely on the rescue missions that he's proven so skilled at handling and willing to devote his full time and energy towards.

* In the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', it's said that this was the fate of Eárnur, the last King of Gondor. He was an excellent military commander and one of the strongest warriors alive when he was out on campaign, but when he became King, his recklessness and obsession with battle became his undoing. Despite the massive importance of the line of succession, he refused to take a wife, and his obsession with honor resulted in him ultimately sallying out to duel the Witch-King of Angmar, [[TooDumbToLive from which he never returned.]]

* Played with somewhat with Catra in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower''. Almost as soon as the series starts she proves herself an excellent fighter and a capable tactician in small scale roles, and at the end of Season 1 she comes tantalizingly close to leading The Horde to taking over Brightmoon, which is the main base of operations for the heroes and the heart of the resistance. [[BigBad Hordak]] rewards her by promoting her to his NumberTwo, but once there the flaws in her abilities quickly begin to show, including that she has no interest in or knowledge of the administerial side of the job (and thus has no clue how to keep Horde troops properly supplied), she [[NoSocialSkills lacks the social skills]] needed to manage people or avoid pushing would-be helpers away, and her psychological issues and fear of being displaced in the Horde's hierarchy make her unable to ask for help out of fear of showing weakness. She still does well enough in some areas, like battle tactics, getting GeniusDitz [[spoiler:Entrapta]] to turn out useful inventions for the Horde, and occasionally giving the reclusive Hordak a much needed kick in the butt to make him actually take an active hand in the war that she's not a ''complete'' disaster, but it's clear that she's in over her head in the role and it's fairly certain that [[spoiler:the Horde would have lost the war at the end of Season 4, if not for some bad choices by Glimmer and the arrival of GreaterScopeVillain Horde Prime.]]

** General George [=McClellan=] was rightly praised as a master of raising and training armies for the Union. However, upon being made commander of the Union army (including the key Army of the Potomac) he wanted to be a fighting commander and proved a hopeless incompetent so cowardly, arrogant and insubordinate to President UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln that he has been blamed for prolonging the war. Ironically, if he stayed in Washington doing what he did best, [=McClellan=] likely could have been given a superior rank to UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, as perhaps Chief of Staff.

* ''WebComic/OnePunchMan''

* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': Even Remedios' character profile admits this is the case for her. She's DumbMuscle incarnate, but was so good as a Paladin she couldn't be overlooked and thus ended up as head of the Holy Kingdom's army. When the Holy Kingdom faces a crisis and the Queen (her {{Foil}} and the only person that could overrule her legally or emotionally) takes a dirt nap, her rigid adherence to a code that should probably be taken as guidelines, refusal to [[{{Realpolitik}} assess her position pragmatically]], and rampant, undisguised elitism [[spoiler:are handing Ainz her army's respect and loyalty on a silver platter]].

** Ministers of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour are promoted past their emotional competence. Fudge proves quite skilled at manipulating most of wizarding Britain into subscribing to his own point of view and following his agenda as well as acting in ways that can allow the ministry to put on the façade of making serious effort at fixing problems without actually making said effort at all, but is ultimately too afraid to make hard decisions and has to see Riddle in person to face reality, at which point he is swiftly forced to resign and subsequently replaced by Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour, meanwhile, is too proud to ask for advice, and blunders his way through and takes too many cues from [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Bartemius Crouch, Senior]]. Scrimgeour was a competent head of the Aurors, though, and [[spoiler:[[RedemptionEqualsDeath he still dies a hero's death]]]].

** Defied by Albus Dumbledore, who successfully employed Peter's Parry (overtly turning down a position one knows oneself to be ill-suited for) when offered the post of Minister of Magic. He knew his own character defects, particularly his susceptibility to the temptations of power, and knew that (with apologies to Creator/JRRTolkien) [[FromBadToWorse he would have been far worse than Riddle]]. [[KnightTemplar He would have remained "righteous", but self-righteous]]. Thus while Riddle multiplied evil, he left good clearly distinguishable from it. [[DontShootTheMessage Dumbledore would have made good detestable and seem evil]].

* Semyon Budyonny, while a cavalryman during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, was known as a SergeantRock and AFatherToHisMen - Budyonny reportedly punched his commanding officer when he discovered his apathy to his soldiers' unenviable conditions, and in return the men saved him from a court-martial and execution by claiming the [=CO=] had merely been kicked by a horse. After defecting to the Bolsheviks, he made his name as a brilliant tactician during the Russian Civil War and is regarded as being critical to the Bolshevik victory at the end of 1919; his actions won him the praise of UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, who not long prior had derided cavalry as the stuff of aristocrats and reactionaries. By the 30s, however, he was an ArmchairGeneral who was so deeply entrenched in his reputation that he refused to concede in any way that horse cavalry had not, in fact, lost any relevance whatsoever in modern warfare. Budyonny was so disdainful of tanks that he [[LethallyStupid claimed their use amounted to ''sabotage'']]. This might not have been particularly problematic if he hadn't been made ''one of the first five Marshals of the Soviet Union'' in 1935; his importance in the Soviet military hierarchy combined with his sheer stubbornness led to the loss of 1.5 million men and the biggest encirclement in the history of warfare when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII broke out. Geoffrey Regan writes, "So elevated was he in the military profession in relation to his ability that oxygen starvation must be suspected."

** The Inspector the Council sends to check in on Visser Three is a brutal warrior owing to his effective command of a Garatron body, a creature with SuperSpeed. He is initially able to best five Animorphs (Jake was on vacation)in combat and heavily embarrass Visser Three. However, his [[SmugSuper smugness]] makes him a bad fit for this delicate job, resulting in him being outwitted by the Animorphs and killed by Marco when the latter chooses to make use of a morph that the Inspector had considered not that big of a threat and therefore beneath his notice.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': A GloryHound, Scar's strongest desire is to become the king of the Pride Lands. But while he proved deadly and conniving about [[TheUsurper setting that goal]] in motion by killing Mufasa, he only [[ItsAllAboutMe cared about the title]] rather than its important duties. He has no idea what he's doing, the Pride Lands turn into a hellhole because of his laziness, and he earns a ZeroPercentApprovalRating for this reason. His own arrogance [[IgnoredEpiphany stops him]] from admitting his rule was chaotic, and [[BerserkButton doesn't like it]] when others compare him to Mufasa. Scar is essentially TheCaligula, letting his subjects starve to death just to maintain power, and he behaves like a PsychopathicManchild by [[NeverMyFault abusing and blaming others]] for the problems he himself caused. If that wasn't enough, the Pride Lands actually do burn as a violent storm sets fire to the long-dead savanna surrounding his domain, and he isn't [[WhileRomeBurns the least bit fazed by it]] as he prepares to murder Simba. When he fails, he is left to answer to his hungry hyena minions, who he previously attempted to throw under the bus for his crimes.

* The protagonist of ''Film/MajorDundee'' allegedly only got where he is by siding against a friend, and he makes some very questionable decisions during his quest to destroy an Apache tribe massacring essentially innocent settlers, at one point causing his own men to resent him.

* Played with in ''Film/GetSmart'' where the Chief doesn't want to promote Max to a field agent because he's so good at his current job. He's later forced to when most of the agents' covers are compromised.

** The Inspector the Council sends to check in on Visser Three is a brutal warrior owing to his effective command of a Garatron body, a creature with SuperSpeed. He is initially able to best five Animorphs (Jake was on vacation)in combat and heavily embarrass Visser Three. However, his [[SmugSuper smugness]] makes him a bad fit for this delicate job, resulting in him being outwitted by the Animorphs and killed by Marco.

** Ministers of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour are promoted past their emotional competence. Fudge is too afraid to make hard decisions, and has to see Riddle in person to face reality. Scrimgeour is too proud to ask for advice, and blunders his way through and takes too many cues from [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Bartemius Crouch, Senior]]. Scrimgeour was a competent head of the Aurors, though, and [[spoiler:[[RedemptionEqualsDeath he still dies a hero's death]]]].

** Ned Stark was a brilliant Lord Paramount of the North, steeped in tradition, CodeOfHonor, local laws and understanding of justice. However when he moved to the capital of King's Landing, those same codes that helped him in the North prevent from being an effective Hand of the King despite the fact that he is actually quite astute about the Crown's problems and political situations. His personal understanding of justice, and inability to separate his sentiments from is professional requirements, does not allow him to properly use his office to the fullest.
** Theon Greyjoy has this best demonstrated when he manages the daring feat of capturing the fortress of Winterfell with only a handful of men, showing off his skills as a raider and low-level tactician. Once he's in command of Winterfell and and in a position to make major strategic decisions, he proceeds to immediately start bungling. The smart thing to do would be to kill some prisoners, grab everything his men can carry, set fire to the place, and make a run for it, but Theon has the wild idea to try and ''hold'' this entire massive fortress. Predictably, it ends poorly for him.

* In ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', Captain John Walker, the first recipient of three Medals of Honor is chosen by the United States Government to be the new Captain America after Sam retired the Shield. Walker's combat credentials are impressive but he does not have Steve Rogers' other qualities which causes him to quickly alienate potential allies and the pressure of such a public role causes him to make bad judgment calls. [[spoiler:This comes to a head when he takes the Super Soldier Serum, which causes his traits, positive and negative, to exaggerate, making his poor temper worse and when his best friend is killed in front of him, he brutally kills a surrendering opponent in broad daylight in front of civillians and attempts to kill Sam and Bucky when they come to take him in. It's only when he lets go of the idea of being Captain America, symbolised by him tossing aside his warped homemade replacement shield and take up a new position as a covert opperative that he's able to be useful.]]

* Before Carter, President UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover was another good example of a good man who shouldn't have been president. He was a very competent mining magnate and philanthropist and was quite possibly the most successful ever Secretary of Commerce under Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. His humanitarian aid to Europe during World War I likely saved millions of lives and made him an international hero, allowing him to win a landslide victory in the 1928 presidential election. As president, though, he had to deal with the Great Depression and made a series of terrible decisions with agricultural policy and the globally unpopular Smoot-Hawley Tariff. He had a horrible relationship with Congress and tended to not think about the optics of his decisions. His ideology of limited government intervention in the economy, commitment to the Gold Standard, and desire to avoiding deficit spending were not at all suited for solving Depression, despite his competence in lower offices. He then lost a landslide to FDR and went back to doing what he was good at, successfully organizing efforts to alleviate the humanitarian disaster caused by World War II. But he is generally remembered as a failure as a president, not for any of his other life accomplishments.

* Wrestling/JesseVentura. He may have been fine as Mayor of Brooklyn Park (and as [[UsefulNotes/NavySEALs soldier]], and as [[ProfessionalWrestling pro wrestler]]), but being elected Governor of Minnesota put him a good deal above his level of competence. His grandstanding and lack of a filter ended up alienating him from the legislature, and his dislike of the media and general lack of a sense of humor about himself didn't earn him many friends in the press, either. Add to this an economy-damaging tax rebate and it's of no real surprise that there was little disappointment when he chose not to run for re-election.

** The BigBad Visser Three is heavily implied to be a case of this. He's pretty good as a low-level planner or squad leader in the ''Chronicles'' books, and he's ''[[AuthorityGrantsAsskicking fantastic]]'' as a soldier due to the brute strength of his morphed body and AxCrazy nature. As the organizer of a large-scale stealth infiltration of humanity, however, he's so unused to noncombat scenarios and so mentally unstable that he becomes a GeneralFailure who [[BadBoss murders his own troops for fun]], splurges resources on feats of CartoonishSupervillainy, and constantly itches to blow cover and start shooting.

* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'''s Michael Scott, Regional Manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin. It's shown that he used to be a great salesman, and still is when called upon, but has none of the right skills for management.

** In "Thine Own Self", Counselor Troi takes the bridge officer's exam so that she will be better qualified to command the ship in the event of an emergency. (Doctor Crusher has already taken and passed it despite it not being particularly relevant to her position as Chief Medical Officer, and in an alternate future is shown commanding a medical frigate.) She is given a battery of tests specifically designed to ensure that she is not promoted above her ability; she has the most trouble with a SecretTestOfCharacter designed to test if she would be willing to [[spoiler:order a subordinate to undertake a SuicideMission if it's the only way to save the lives of the rest of the crew.]]

** Inverted by Mariner. She previously had a higher rank but was demoted and transferred off an exploration ship (and it's implied that family connections were the only thing that kept her from being kicked out), but not because she was incompetent. She could easily handle the kind of stuff a senior officer would do in a typical episode of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', but can't stand the bureaucracy and paperwork they also have to do. That said, being overqualified and settling for a position way beneath her abilities carries its own issues, namely people either treat her like her rank suggests and ignore her expertise or they get so frustrated with her laziness that they're forced to crack the whip and make her shape up.

** General John B. Hood of the Confederate States of America was an example on the other side. An excellent brigade and division commander, he was merely competent at the corps level and performed poorly while in command of an army. When he was put in command of the Army of the Tennessee opposing Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, he did so much damage to his own forces due to his preference for [[AttackAttackAttack offensive maneuvers]] that by the time he was compelled to abandon Atlanta and retreat about 30,000 men were left in his army, down from a height of about 65,000. In comparison, Sherman's forces at their peak numbered 112,000 and retained 81,000 by the end of the campaign. Crucially, the Union forces could be quickly replenished, while the Confederacy was facing a dire manpower shortage.

* UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan is one the undisputed greats to ever play in the NBA. For a while, it seemed like a couple of mediocre years in Washington would be his career low point. Then came 2010, where MJ became owner of the Charlotte Hornets (formerly the Bobcats). To say his management of the team (who posted a floundering ''7-59'' record in a strike shortened season) has been unimpressive is putting it mildly.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Admiral Akainu is an ImplacableMan whose [[MagmaMan magma-based powers]] makes him a [[PersonOfMassDestruction walking volcano]] capable of [[OneManArmy winning wars all by himself]]. After his promotion to Fleet Admiral and going by his real name (Sakazuki), he's now stuck behing a desk, unable to control the admirals under him because he can't simply [[BadBoss melt them]] like he did with the rank-and-file, dealing with incompetent and/or corrupt superiors that only care about [[SlaveToPR saving face]] from their own screw-ups even if that means ignoring serious global threats and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the former fleet admiral showing in just to troll him over his new job]].

* ''Fanfic/PrehistoricParkReimagined'': Over the course of the first two 'phases' of the story, it becomes increasingly clear that main protagonist Drew Luczynski, while incredibly talented in his position as the rescue team leader for the titular ExtinctAnimalPark, is hardly the ideal choice for his additional position as the park's manager. For as is revealed in Phase 2, the same recklessness and preference to act in the moment that make him an ideal leader to have in the unpredictable and incredibly dangerous field of rescuing and rounding up wild prehistoric animals in the wild also causes him to largely ignore unpleasant issues unfolding at the park and amongst his staff and do nothing to resolve them until after they've become impossible to ignore and have usually already resulted in someone either getting hurt or at least dangerously close to such. And as if that weren't enough, the similarly rescue team leader worthy passion he has for the animals and successfully achieving the missions over all else causes him to largely consider any duties he has to do at the park that don't directly involve either of these as lower priority, which results in him engaging in massive amounts of procrastination in completing and filing paperwork and often trying to pass his other administrative duties on to other people even when they've already got enough to do in the tasks they're already supposed to be doing in positions that don't involve such duties. Tellingly, these details, plus several other serious character flaws he displays, leads to his superiors at local MegaCorp Novum to start strongly considering hiring an additional pair of managers for the park that can cover his weaknesses as a manager while also allowing him to have all the more time to focus entirely on the rescue missions that he's proven so skilled at handling and willing to devote his full time and energy towards.

* Mike Keenan was one of the UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague's premier coaches in the 1980s and early 1990s, getting to the Stanley Cup Finals three times before finally winning it as coach of the 1994 New York Rangers. In 1997, he moved to the St. Louis Blues, where he became both the head coach and the General Manager. Blues fans widely consider Keenan's reign to be a DorkAge, and many of them still loathe him. His later General Manager stints with the Vancouver Canucks (where he was the de facto GM for a couple of years before Brian Burke was hired, and oversaw a DorkAge even ''worse'' than the one he caused in St. Louis) and the Florida Panthers were no better. Worse, he lost his coaching touch, as he also coached the Canucks and Panthers teams he ran into the ground. His last coaching run with the Calgary Flames led to swift first-round playoff exits and his even swifter firing. Today, his name is pretty much mud across the League.

** In ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'', one of Cobra's plots to break their military stalemate with the Joes is to hack into their database and send through promotion orders for the soldiers least suited for command. Their choices are: Lifeline, a highly skilled medic and rescue trooper whose [[ActualPacifist extreme pacifism]] makes him a completely ineffective commander in a combat situation; Dial-Tone, a fussy telecommunications expert whose perfectionism and constantly tinkering with things that aren't broken sabotages his troops; and Shipwreck, an eminently qualified gunner's mate who has no tactical sense and is too much of a meathead to be suited for any position that doesn't involve shooting things. Obviously as part of a highly selective and elite military organization, they're ''very'' good at what they do, but as commanding officers are disastrously ineffective, leading to a NearVillainVictory until their general shows up to bail them out.

** North Dakota State has been the single most successful college football program outside the major college level, but its coaches have had a lousy track record moving up to the next level, with Darrell Mudra, Ron Erhardt, Jim Wacker, Don Morton, Earle Solomonson and Rocky Hager all sputtering out in higher-profile jobs. Among the two current former NDSU coaches currently in top level jobs, Chris Klieman has managed some success at Kansas State, but Craig Bohl has had a mediocre tenure at Wyoming.

** The BigBad Visser Three is heavily implied to be a case of this. He's pretty good as a low-level planner or squad leader in the ''Chronicles'' books, and he's ''[[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking fantastic]]'' as a soldier due to the brute strength of his morphed body and AxCrazy nature. As the organizer of a large-scale stealth infiltration of humanity, however, he's so unused to noncombat scenarios and so mentally unstable that he becomes a GeneralFailure who [[BadBoss murders his own troops for fun]], splurges resources on feats of CartoonishSupervillainy, and constantly itches to blow cover and start shooting.

* In ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', [[ChallengingTheChief Trials of Position used by the Clans]] to promote their officers unintentionally leads to this: The Clans all [[ProudWarriorRace emphasize combat prowess]], with the [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority best combatants winning their Trials and being promoted to higher command positions]]. Unfortunately, at no point does the system take into account one's ability to ''lead'' the larger number of people required by a higher rank, which means that an individual Clan officer's actual command ability can be anywhere from '[[TheStrategist brilliant strategist]]' (like Ulric Kerensky) to 'raging GeneralFailure' (like Lincoln Osis) with no system in place to actually ''test'' this before they're promoted. The only thing that can be said for certain is that a given Clan officer was competent enough at their ''last'' job to be allowed to undertake a Trial of Position (incompetent Clan officers usually find their Clan elders are unsympathetic to their promotion requests, and usually find more of their own subordinates being allowed to challenge them for their own position), and better at personal combat that whoever they fought against (which usually includes the former holder of said position).