Line #85 Main/ThePeterPrinciple


1	->''"If I may be so bold... it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material."''
2	-->-- '''Spock''' (to ''Admiral'' Kirk), ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''
3
4	''When people in a sufficiently large hierarchy are promoted because of their competence, the end result will tend to put everyone into a position for which they are not competent.''
5
6	In other words, the cream will rise until it sours.
7
8	The theory behind the Peter Principle is this: when Alice is competent in her position, she will be promoted to another position because of her competence. Alice may or may not be competent at that new position. If she is incompetent, then she will become ineligible for promotion and stay put; she will be kept in that position indefinitely, even if there are other positions in the hierarchy which may suit her skills. The workers who are competent will keep being promoted for as long as they are competent and there are open slots above; they will be promoted out of the positions they are competent in but kept in the position they fail at. Since the only way to ''stay'' in a position below the top of the hierarchy indefinitely is to be incompetent, the hierarchy will eventually stabilize into [[IncompetenceInc an organization that is mostly incompetent]].
9
10	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.
11
12	The name comes from the book by [[TropeNamers Dr. Laurence J. Peter]], which is about this principle and discusses it in about twelve chapters worth of detail.
13
14	The counterpoint is TheDilbertPrinciple, which states that incompetent workers will always be promoted first ([[KickedUpstairs into inconsequential middle management positions]]), in order to keep them from interfering with the efforts of the competent, and is said to be a reaction to the identification of this trope (but if the competent ones ''want'' to be promoted, they'll suffer a PassedOverPromotion). Scott Adams noted that victims of the Peter Principle at least ''knew'' how to do the jobs of their subordinates.
15
16	It's a common cause of the PointyHairedBoss and ModernMajorGeneral. The CareerBuildingBlunder is one method of defying this trope.
17
18	Compare and contrast BrainDrain, KickedUpstairs (arguably an [[InvokedTrope invocation]] of the trope), and UnfitForGreatness.
19
20	----
21	!!Example subpages:
22	[[index]]
23	* ThePeterPrinciple/{{Literature}}
24	* ThePeterPrinciple/LiveActionTV
25	* ThePeterPrinciple/VideoGames
26	* ThePeterPrinciple/WesternAnimation
27	* ThePeterPrinciple/RealLife
28	[[/index]]
29
30	!!Other examples:
31	[[foldercontrol]]
32
33	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
34	* ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' has way too many examples of this, but a few notable examples are Commodore Falke, Fleet Admiral Lobos, Fleet Admiral Dawson and High Admiral Lennenkampf, all of whom were fairly decent commanders acting as underlings to a more competent superior giving them orders, but are disastrously ineffective as administrators who have to give the orders and make the big military decisions themselves.
35	* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', only the best students are allowed to join the "prestigious" Military Police Brigade that guards the innermost wall and the King. Therefore, the most skillfully trained soldiers are placed in a position of authority farthest from any actual fighting, while those less capable are more likely to be on the front lines. This situation is actually well known, and most who hone their skills high enough to be able to get the position were doing so just to be placed in a safe life. Eren bitterly notes the disconnect. Adding to this, since hand-to-hand combat skills aren't valued as highly as 3D Maneuver Gear piloting (for obvious [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/shingekinokyojin/images/e/e0/Titan_Shifters_size_comparison.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150419212735 reasons]]), students who want to join the Military Police Brigade prioritize 3D Maneuver Gear training over melee combat training. This means that the soldiers who would be expected to fight human-sized opponents more often are actually the least qualified ones to do so. [[spoiler:The ''real'' reason the best soldiers are promoted to the decorative Military Police is because the best of ''those'' are secretly promoted to the Black Ops division, where they hunt down and kill off dissenting citizens with specialized firearm-compatible 3D Maneuver Gear. It's still backwards because now those most eligible to protect the people are the ones assigned to mercilessly cut them down.]]
36	* Team Dai-Gurren in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Fighting an action filled, explosion riddled resistance? Easily done. Slowing down after the fighting and running the government you're in charge of? No thanks. Most of them are aware of this and the fighters struggle to deal with their new jobs while the support team has it easier. Simon is on top, but Rossieu does most of the work as his second-in-command. [[spoiler: After Simon's wedding with Nia and her death seconds after, he leaves Rossieu in charge and Gurren Lagann to the twins]].
37	* Discussed in ''Manga/SgtFrog''; Aki Hinata turns down a promotion because A) she likes her current position, and B) she knows that this trope might go into effect. This is demonstrated in the rest of the story; Tamama is [[spoiler: mistakenly]] promoted to squad captain, and proceeds to go full TyrantTakesTheHelm on everyone else.
38	* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan''
39	** Invoked, after a fashion. The Hero Association isn't sure if Saitama is really strong or is just a fraud getting credit for the victories of others. They decide to promote him anyway; either he deserves the promotion, or he doesn't and will soon be killed by more powerful monsters. Of course, he ''does'' deserve the promotions, since [[WorldsStrongestMan he's the strongest. Of anything]].
40	** This also applies to King. Often times, Saitama's victories are attributed to him, and King has such social anxiety that he never corrected the record, accidentally becoming the 7th ranked S-class Hero of the Association. However, his excellent poker face and the panicked sound of his heart beating loud enough to make most foes think they're the ones frightened means often times he doesn't ''need'' to fight the MonsterOfTheWeek.
41	* ''Literature/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]].
42	* [[AntiHero Endeavor]] runs afoul of this in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' following [[spoiler:[[TheParagon All Might's]] retirement]]; Endeavor is a great hero, with a powerful Quirk and excellent detective skills that allow him to resolve far more cases than most other heroes. But while he certainly has the power, he lacks [[spoiler:the charisma and compassion that made All Might the beloved Symbol of Peace]]. As such, Endeavor's [[spoiler:tenure as #1 Hero]] is rocky, as few civilians look to him for inspiration and more villains start coming out of the woodwork to prey on this unease, something Endeavor is painfully aware of but has no idea how to counter.
43	* ''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]]. While he lacks imagination, his fundamental intelligence and lack of scruples still make him a decent strategist and tactician, if one reliant on brute force. The mangaka has confirmed that if he were looking for the One Piece, he would be capable of finding it more quickly than the main cast. After his promotion to Fleet Admiral and going by his real name (Sakazuki), he's now stuck behind 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]]. And the position exacerbates his flaws; his lack of imagination is a more serious issue when there's no one above him in the pecking order to handle that for him and means he's incapable of coming up with creative solutions to the rut he's stuck in.
44	* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': Following Zola's death in Ange's first sortie, Salia is promoted to captain of the first squad. However, it's very much clear from the beginning that's she's not ready for the position, failing to keep her teammates in line, and often letting her own feelings of jealousy over Ange override her judgement.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Books]]
48	* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' comics:
49	** They have Bumblebee struggle with this. As a scout he's ''very'' competent and popular with the Autobots. This leads to him getting voted into a command position -- despite his own protests -- during a time when Optimus Prime was separated from the troops. Turns out he was right to protest; Bumblebee can't handle command ''at all''. His desire to make everyone happy often clashes with his duties, he has trouble understanding high-level tactics and strategy, most of the senior Autobots don't respect his authority and still see him as TheBabyOfTheBunch, and the stress of the job causes him to [[TookALevelInJerkass develop a nasty temper]], robbing him of the [[TheHeart friendliness and moral wisdom that made him popular to begin with]]. When he's effectively kicked out of command, he's relieved and almost immediately goes back to his usual cheerful self. The wiki even calls him out on this.
50	** This trope is a major recurring theme in IDW's materials. For instance, Optimus was a brilliant cop and commander, and Megatron an insightful writer and political theorist, and both were powerful fighters. However, when they found themselves in the positions of having to effectively run a star-spanning civil war, their internal weaknesses came to the fore. Optimus' self-questioning nature and strident morality keeps giving way to [[AchillesInHisTent periods of ennui]] followed by rash decisions and causes him to become increasingly corrupt, while Megatron's lack of experience in warcraft and deep-seated traumas leads to him creating [[ComplexityAddiction overcomplicated or needlessly brutal plans]] and neglecting the actual peaceful endgame that was his motivation to begin with. It's even implied at one point that Optimus [[TheUnchosenOne isn't truly worthy of the Matrix]], and Starscream (though [[TheStarscream obviously a biased source]]) outright says that Megatron had no idea what the implications of his own war were. Basically, they were charismatic and talented people who wound up in the best possible place at the worst possible time, and by the time their weaknesses had become evident, the war had been grinding on for centuries with thousands dead and no clear frontrunner.
51	* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'': Carol Danvers, as the head of security for NASA, is competent at her job (alien killbots and infiltration notwithstanding). As head of SHIELD... she's got a long string of disasters and screw-ups to her name, which eventually gets her fired.
52	* In the ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' story "Chronicle of a Return" the Evronian sergeant Bonton and spore technician Manootensyon [[YouAreInCommandNow find themselves as the highest-ranked soldier and scientist on their worldship after everyone above them is killed]]. They're ''extremely'' competent at their jobs (Bonton even saves everyone else), but the situation sees them in command of far more than they can deal, with Manootensyon being able to grow low-caste Evronians with ease but unable to make the high-caste they need (his one attempt at growing a high-caste scientist that could grow even an emperor from a spore resulted in someone far stupider of him [[spoiler:or rather [[WhiteSheep the first good Evronian in history]] who is just as smart as he should be but [[ObfuscatingStupidity pretends otherwise]] so he won't be killed while he works out how to contain everyone else on the ship]]), and Bonton's search for a superior resulting in [[BavarianFireDrill Paperinik pretending to be the representative of an Evronian emperor]] and ''talking him into handing over command''.
53	* In ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'', Cary acted as a competent superhero for a long time as part of a team. Then he's given a massive powerboost and changes his name to Survivor, becoming the strongest of Earth's heroes outside of perhaps The Plutonian. As a big fish, he turns out to be completely ill-equipped. Not only does he end up DrunkWithPower in short order, but he has no charisma to speak of and he's not all that bright--which is only worsened by the fact that he insists on trying to act as a leader even when he's manifestly talentless at doing so. One of his more boneheaded moves was attempting to rally together various surviving supervillains into a new team to benefit humanity with an offer of clemency... ignoring that most of these supervillains are supervillains ''for a reason''.
54	* In ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' this is what ruins many of the cops, private detectives, and even inventors and criminals who try and take on Diabolik without being [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Ginko]]: they're often very good at their jobs, but [[OvershadowedByAwesome Diabolik is far smarter]] and ends up seeing a weakness in their plan or device to either thwart one of his heists or catch him. Indeed, the one time Ginko had been temporarily replaced and Diabolik was successfully foiled and even almost arrested was because [[GenreSavvy the replacement knew he was out of his depths]] and called Ginko for instructions on the off chance Diabolik would try and steal the money he was to escort.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Fan Works]]
58	* ''Fanfic/ABoyAGirlAndADogTheLeithianScript'': After being ousted by conniving relatives, Finrod appoints his youngest brother Orodreth as regent. Previously Orodreth had only governed little provinces and strongholds and all of sudden he had to rule a kingdom spanned two thirds of the subcontinent where the story happens. He was completely overwhelmed, trying to desperately keep everything together as feeling inadequate and incompetent.
59	* ''Fanfic/ConsequencesOfRevelation'' takes this stance on Commander Palmer's seeming incompetence in canon - she worked well commanding small teams, but was promoted beyond her level of skill. This causes her to make mistakes... but when you're as highly placed as "Leader of all SPARTAN forces on the most advanced UNSC ship in existence," any mistakes you make are magnified nearly exponentially.
60	* At least suggested in ''Fanfic/DidIMakeTheMostOfLovingYou'' when Saul Tigh is [[spoiler:promoted to Commander of a Battlestar after the previous commander is executed for assisting in a mutiny, as Tigh has trouble adapting his command style to be the benevolent commander rather than the ‘hardass’ XO. He eventually requests a transfer back to ''Galactica'' while his own XO is promoted to Commander, allowing Tigh to basically command ''Galactica'' in a crisis while Adama works as the fleet admiral, the two men returning to their more traditional dynamic]].
61	* ''Fanfic/TheGospelOfMalachel'': Maya Ibuki is promoted from bridge bunny to head of Project E after Ritsuko's fall from grace. However, her new job is utterly overwhelming her, and she ends up calling Ritsuko and asking her help.
62	* In the ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'' spin-off ''Counterpart Conferences'', this is partially the reason why the Franchise/{{Batman}} of [[Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse Earth-1992]] didn't bother to recruit the aid of the Batman of [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Earth-2005]] on his quest to find the displaced Joker of his Earth. While he doesn't doubt that his other self is competent, not only has Earth-2005-Bruce decided to "retire" as Batman, but this version of Bruce Wayne has no experience dealing with magic, metahumans or alternate dimensions. Regardless of his skills, he would be out of his depth if introduced to the multiverse, no matter how good he was against normal criminals.
63	* In ''Fanfic/KimberlyTsGargoyles'' series, Matt muses at one point that Elisa isn't likely to rise higher in the department because while she's a skilled detective, she's not very good at dealing with the press in a diplomatic manner, with publicity meetings being a key part of a police captain's duties.
64	* ''Fanfic/AMoonAndWorldApart'': In chapter 15, Luna expresses a desire to avert this, stating that Twilight could easily win election to Director of the Science Department, but also that she'd be wasted in such a bureaucratic position, being far more suited to the hooves-on work that she enjoys.
65	* ''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, cause his superiors at local MegaCorp Novum to hire 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.
66	* Discussed in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7425620/1/To-The-Journey To the Journey]]" when Lieutenant Barclay has a permanent reprimand on his file after he went against orders to try and implement his plan to make contact with USS Voyager. Barclay muses in the aftermath that he doesn’t mind if he’s a few months later for promotion than he might have been without the reprimand, as he’s always known he’s not going to make even Chief Engineer or higher given his personal issues. Ultimately Barclay observes that any decent commander would allocate the work to the person who can do it, so as long as he has a suitably fair commanding officer, he’s satisfied that he’d still be doing the same work regardless of the number of pips on his collar.
67	* Discussed in "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/29880426/ we'll bury these old ghosts here]]", which looks at the characters of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' in the aftermath of the Snap (''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''). With Terry and Amy victims of the Snap, when the time comes for Captain Holt to appoint a new sergeant he chooses to nominate Jake Peralta for the role rather than Charles Boyle or Rosa Diaz, on the grounds that Jake has better people skills where Boyle would be a pushover and Rosa would be too aggressive.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
71	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': Scar inflicts the trope on himself, due to his insatiable desire to become [[TheUsurper king]]. And as he shows during the first act, he's a patient schemer, a good diplomat, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and a pretty good singer too]]. But after he's managed to manipulate Mufasa into getting himself killed and Simba into running away, he wastes absolutely ''no'' time in proving that he's terrible at the job he wanted so badly; his ambition wasn't to ''rule'' so much as it was to [[ItsAllAboutMe satisfy his ego]] by being top cat of the pride. To elaborate further on just how bad things get:
72	** His deal with the hyenas results in the Pridelands being stripped bare by their overhunting, and it looks burned, presumably because the extra vegetation (since all the herbivores were gone) meant wildfires were worse.
73	** He's psychologically incapable of acknowledging the extent of his failures due to his InferioritySuperiorityComplex relating to Mufasa; admitting the Pridelands had gone to hell would mean acknowledging that Mufasa was the better king for never letting things get this bad.
74	** [[MeaninglessVillainVictory His victory was hollow]] and he knows it. He has a ZeroPercentApprovalRating since everyone else can see the above bullet points, to the point where even his hyena minions, who supposedly have the better deal under Scar since they can hunt to their hearts' content, are starting to feel nostalgic about Mufasa. He turns into TheCaligula as the only way he can think to gain respect is through violence (which ensures temporary obedience but also makes them respect him even ''less'', which he ''also'' knows), and he's reduced to trying to satisfy his narcissism by bullying Zazu, a small bird. [[DefiantCaptive And Zazu annoys him by singing earworms]].
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
78	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
79	** In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', Kirk is now an Admiral, his job is mostly clerical and he's depressed over getting old. Spock reminds Kirk that he has more to offer as a captain than as an admiral. "Being a starship captain is your first, best destiny," he explains. "Anything else is a waste of material." It's an opinion that Bones also shares, offering that the reason Kirk feels so old is probably because he's not out there "hopping galaxies" and suggests commanding a starship again. Again, ''Spock and Bones both agree'' that Kirk is wasting his talents as an Admiral. When was the last time those two agreed on ''anything''? A fact not lost on the rest of Starfleet and Federation government, [[{{Unishment}} after Kirk's "punishment" by being demoted to captain]] in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''.
80	** Kirk then makes sure to tell Picard in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' never to accept a promotion out of the ''Enterprise's'' captain's chair. Advice Picard apparently takes to heart, as we see in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', he's still a captain, while [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Janeway]] has been promoted to Admiral.
81	%%* 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.
82	* ''Film/{{Casino}}'' gives us Nicky Santoro (who was, in fact, based on a real person). Nicky is a highly competent thief, drug dealer, extortionist, and hit man, so competent that he is promoted to be TheMafia's representative in UsefulNotes/LasVegas. Sadly, running the mob's operations in Vegas requires tact, subtlety, and more than a little bit of stealth, none of which are skills Nicky actually possesses.
83	* 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. And from there, while Max ''does'' manage to prove a fairly competent field agent in his own right, to say that he ends up suffering from some growing pains in certain areas [[HilarityEnsues would be an understatement]].
84	* This looks to be the case for Lieutenant Gorman from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', who is competent and brave when in personal danger like an ordinary soldier, yet can't handle the responsibility of being in a command position. Given he's a lieutenant in a command position that should be going to a captain or even a major, it's entirely possible he just recently replaced the previous leader and thus is just in an impossible situation. [[spoiler: Which makes a twisted kind of sense, given the marines are being set up to fail by their corporate sponsors.]]
85	* ''Film/{{Noelle}}'' gives us the titular character's cousin Gabriel. A real wizard at handling computers, he very much feels right at home as the head of Santa's tech support department. However, when he's forced to sub as Santa for Noelle's older brother Nick (himself ironically not fully suited for the role), he finds himself in way over his head since he [[MeasuringTheMarigolds only thinks in terms of technology, efficiency, and data analysis]] and only makes things temporarily worse when he decides to try to turn the enterprise into an online delivery service and reduce the present quota to far shorter than the number of children on the nice list for the sake of efficiency. [[spoiler: In the end, he is quite happy indeed to return to his old job without a fuss and allow his initially suggested changes to the business to be revoked once Nick decides to appoint Noelle herself as Santa instead.]]
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
89	* This is so common in the history of the business that there's a term, "hot shotting" for taking someone new who's showing early promise and trying to push them too far too fast, leading to disaster and potentially long-term career damage.
90	* Wrestling/VinceRusso as a booker is capable of producing some brilliant, or at least interesting, ideas (e.g The Brood), and can generally be relied upon to provide every wrestler up and down the card with something to do, regardless of the relative quality of that something. Vince Russo as ''head'' booker has run companies into the ground. Russo is a great ideas man, but he ''desperately'' needs a filter; when he had Wrestling/VinceMcMahon overseeing him in the WWF he threw a lot of shit at a wall and the WWF had some great success with what stuck, but when he jumped ship to WCW and was made head booker (after convincing Wrestling/EricBischoff that he was the man responsible for WWF's Wrestling/AttitudeEra) he was allowed to throw his shit at the ''floor'' instead, leading to things like Creator/DavidArquette, [[Horrible/{{WCW}} WCW Champion]].
91	* Wrestling/TheMiz is famous for being a perpetual victim of this. A safe and solid but ultimately unremarkable wrestler, the Miz will win over a bunch of new fans with his entertaining promos and clever plots to get one over on his enemies, get a big push to the main event level, get his mediocre wrestling overexposed, and get busted back down into the midcard where the cycle will repeat itself in time.
92	* Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, creatively at least, has been very credibly accused of this. As an ambitious regional promoter, he managed to go nationwide with a combination of media savvy and ruthless, cutthroat business tactics. But, as a ControlFreak and deeply odd human being, Vince kept also wanting to book the shows himself, and became more and more resistant to the word "no" from the various talented people he employed, often running them off or [[KickedUpstairs kicking them into other parts of the corporate structure]] and replacing them with yes-men. Over time, this inevitably results in creative stagnation, critically-panned and commercially-underperforming shows, and or even commercial failure. It's telling that during the most successful times in his promotion's history, he was all-but forced to give up power by outside pressure, and when he successfully established a near-complete monopoly on wrestling promotion in the United States, meaning ''no one'' could really tell him what to do anymore, it coincided with steady, not-always-slow decline in viewership, to which his inevitable response was to double down and try to control ''more'' aspects of his company in a cycle of declining quality that was only really arrested when a series of sex scandals forced him into unwilling retirement.
93	** He also frequently tried to expand into other areas of sports, such as bodybuilding promotions and professional football leagues. These were all catastrophic and humiliating failures. Except the second incarnation of the XFL. That one was only a moderate failure, and it might've been catching on, before the COVID-19 pandemic strangled it in the crib.
94	* Wrestling/TripleH is an interesting, zigzagged example, not unlike Xiahou Dun from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China under Real Life. Paul Levesque/Hunter Hearst Helmsley is a very talented and capable wrestler and an even more capable politician. More than one commenter has suggested that, in general, Triple H's abilities are best served as an upper mid-card "jobber to the stars" rather than a full-on main event wrestler; Wrestling/JimCornette once described him as "the guy who works with the guys who draw the money." But his powerful backstage connections, first as a junior partner in the Clique, then as a survivor in a gutted roster, and ''then'' as the boyfriend-turned-husband of [[Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon the boss's daughter]] all elevated him pretty far up the card. Although he never truly broke through into the mainstream like fellow Attitude Era stalwarts like the Undertaker, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mick Foley, or Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, his backstage power and the simple fact that he stuck around while his fellows were eventually either retired, semi-retired, or moving on to greener pastures netted him several world title runs, including the infamous "Reign of Terror" where he increasingly came to dominate the show, frequently putting down and humiliating other wrestlers in the process. Many fans from this time grew to ''despise'' him, especially when his bulky, allegedly-steroidal physique meant he simply wasn't flexible enough to do much in the ring. However, as he aged out of active regular competition and increasingly moved behind the scenes, Triple H ''did'' prove to be a very capable booker, elevating the {{Wrestling/WWE NXT}} brand from a trashy and low-quality reality television program to a beloved hidden gem of classic, old-style wrestling storytelling during some of the weakest periods in the bigger WWE promotion's history, without using it to elevate himself. Although he has his own idiosyncrasies (he ''loves'' long heel title runs, for instance, and can often be relied not to pull the trigger on big babyface wins, ''especially'' if doing so would mean a heel titleholder doesn't get to break a record), for most of the New Twenties one could tell whether Triple H or his father in law was currently on top in the power struggle over WWE creative by looking at the overall quality of the WWE product. In short, the same political skills that saw him promoted beyond his abilities as a wrestler also saw him promoted ''into'' his level of competence as a booker.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Sports]]
98	* Golden Tee Golf's original prize structure drove this home ''hard''. Players were grouped into Bronze, Silver, and Gold classes, each with correspondingly greater prizes. One official tournament was held every month, after which the top Bronze finishers advanced to Silver and the top Silver finishers advanced to Gold. The kicker was that in Silver, it wasn't too hard for reasonably skilled players to consistently finish in the money, and they'd drop to Bronze if they came up empty for three straight tournaments. Gold, however, paid off only the top 75 finishers... about a quarter of the class at any given time... and demotion to Silver happened only after losing out in SIX straight tournaments. Worse, Gold had, of course, the best Golden Tee Golf players in the world, many of whom were good enough to cash in every tournament, leaving even fewer spots for the new blood. The net result was that for many, many players, promotion to Gold meant ''having absolutely no chance to win anything for half a year!'' Which was the original point of the structure -- it was specifically made to prevent Gold-level players from exploiting the system by sandbagging just to win extra money at the Silver level.
99	* In Sumo, a rikishi getting promoted to a rank where he's completely over his head isn't a big deal; he'll simply have a terrible tournament and be demoted. The exception is ozeki. Reaching the rank requires an exceptional record over three tournaments, generally at least 33 wins (out of 45) and one runner-up at minimum. However, he cannot be demoted unless he has ''two'' consecutive losing records. He is merely "kadoban" after one losing record; if he has a positive result the next tournament, even 8-7, the slate is clean. This has allowed quite a few ozeki to remain at the rank long after they've dropped WAY below the level they were when they got it:
100	** Chiyotaikai -- Promoted to ozeki after his breakout January 1999 basho, he stumbled horribly out of the gate in March and May, but recovered and had a pretty good track record through 2000. And then he suffered two nasty injuries in 2001 and 2002 that completely ruined his form (the pressure of being Kokonoe-beya's next great hope after Chiyonofuji certainly didn't help either). From then on he was largely doomed to a 6 to 9 win treadmill and a humiliating parade of kadobans. He finally was demoted in January 2010, where he blasted off to a 0-4 start and promptly retired.
101	** Musoyama -- A good-but-not-great oshi specialist and one of the then-formidable Musashigawa stable, he had one impressive stretch of dominance in early 2000 which propelled him to ozeki...and never lived it down. Inconsistency and seemingly endless injuries would plague the remainder of his career; he only ever exceeded 10 wins once more (March 2001) and was kadoban 6 times.
102	** Miyabiyama -- Another Musashigawa stalwart, he shot up the ranks like a rocket in his early career, needing a mere 12 tournaments...two years!..to make ozeki. He was the surest lock for yokozuna since Takanohana. So how did his ozeki stint go? He goes 54-51 over his next 7 tournaments (barely adequate for a ''komusubi''), going kadoban 3 times in the process, then in September 2001 suffers a devastating injury which knocks him out of the next TWO tournaments and catapults him back into the rank and file. The Sumo Association was so disgusted by his collapse that they refused to promote him back to ozeki in July 2006, even though he'd gone 34-11 with a runner-up, which should've been more than enough. They had also recently promoted Hakuho to ozeki and there were four other ozeki at the time as well--Chiyotaikai, Kaio, Tochiazuma, and Kotooshu.
103	** Kaio -- One of many outstanding ozeki who was ''just'' not good enough to make the final jump to yokozuna. Despite never contending for a championship after 2004 and having to miss a lot of tournaments to injury, he hung on for tournament after tournament, one losing record never becoming two. He had an amazing knack, however he did it, for getting that all-important 8th win; he was 8-7 for ''all six tournaments'' in 2009. He finally succumbed to the inevitable, at the astounding age of 39, in July 2011. He's tied with Chiyotaikai for the most tournaments at ozeki (65) and is the sole holder of most tournaments in makuuchi (107) and most kadobans (14). He was never demoted.
104	** Tochiazuma -- Formidable multi-talent who made ozeki during his peak from September 2001 to January 2002. Unfortunately, that's when his myriad health problems decided to come crashing down on him en masse, and his ozeki tenure was a horrendous roller coaster where he was as likely to finish with 2 wins as 12. Did manage to pull in one championship and two runners-up before his body completely gave out in March 2007.
105	** Goeido -- An athletic technician à la Asahifuji who had enormous success at the high school level and reached makuuchi a mere two and a half years after his debut. Unfortunately, despite his ring sense and mastery of technique, he was prone to mental breakdowns and could self-destruct at any moment. He bounced up and down the ranks for a long time before finally correcting his problems and going 12-3 in in March 2012, which propelled him to Sekiwake. He held onto that rank for two years then peaked, going 12-3, 8-7, and 12-3 from March to July 2014, picking up two jun-yushos in the progress. This was good enough to promote him to ozeki, the first in an eternity to make it with fewer than 33 wins. His career since had been marred by breakdowns, inexplicable collapses, and feeble efforts, and despite the occasional flash of brilliance (he actually got the first yusho of his career in September 2016, and 15-0 at that), his record was far below ozeki standard and he'd been kadoban nine times. His confidence seemed to be all but gone by this point, and it looked like he was content to cling to the rank for as long as he can like Kaio. In fact, he ended up passing Kotozakura, Musashimaru, and Kotoshogiku for tenth place on the list of longest-reigning ozeki before he retired after posting a 5-10 record at the first tournament of 2020.
106	* 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, the all-time worst single season NBA team W-L record by percentage) has been unimpressive is putting it mildly.
107	* Isiah Thomas is another example: great player who led the Pistons to two championships, horrible coach and general manager.
108	* UsefulNotes/WayneGretzky is known among hockey fans as "The Great One". A total legend in his sport. Then he became coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. 4 lousy seasons, only one of them ending with Phoenix finishing above .500 (by ''one game'' at that) and zero playoff appearances. "The Great One" moniker clearly didn't follow him into coaching. Unlike many examples, Gretzky realized that he sucked at coaching and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm resigned from coaching]] to both his and the Coyotes' benefit. Today, Gretzky views his coaching career as an OldShame.
109	* Graham Taylor was a very good football manager at club level, achieving considerable success with unfashionable clubs like Lincoln City and Watford (forming an unlikely friendship with chairman Music/EltonJohn at the latter) before becoming manager of the England national team. At this, he was less successful (he would later be the inspiration for ''Film/MikeBassettEnglandManager'') and resigned after failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Following this, he went back to club management and achieved more success during a second spell as manager of Watford.
110	* Rene Meulensteen; generally considered to be the HypercompetentSidekick to Sir Alex Ferguson during Manchester United's dominance of the new millennium in the English Premier League. Fans were begging for Ferguson's successor David Moyes to retain him, but Moyes let Meulensteen leave anyway, to go off to [[NouveauRiche Anzhi]] in Russia. He was sacked after ''sixteen days''. Next, he went to manage Fulham; three months of dismal performances later, Meulensteen was sacked ''again'', and replaced with ex-Bayern manager Felix Magath.
111	* Ferguson's previous number two, Steve [=McClaren=], followed a similar career path to Graham Taylor. When he first struck out on his own at Middlesbrough, he led them to their first and only major trophy, the 2004 League Cup, then to the final of the 2006 UEFA Cup after multiple [[MiracleRally Miracle Rallies]] in the knockout stages. He was promptly hired as England manager, but lasted just 16 months - the shortest-ever reign for an England manager at the time - before being sacked as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008. While his return to club football with Dutch side Twente was more successful, leading them to their first ever league title, every job he had after that ended in failure until, in 2022, he bit the bullet and returned to his former assistant role at Manchester United.
112	* As a player, Frank Lampard is regarded as one of the greatest players in Chelsea's history, and one of the greatest midfielders in Premier League history. As a manager - having been hired off the back of a single decent season at Derby County - he's regarded as one of Chelsea's ''worst''. His first spell started decently enough, only to suffer from a fatal SophomoreSlump, while his temporary second spell saw him lose ''eight'' of his eleven matches in charge as Chelsea spiralled to their worst finish in almost 30 years.
113	* There is a very long list of college football players (including Heismann Trophy winners) that were stellar in college but underperformed or outright busted once they reached the NFL.
114	** Some of the more notable players include Ryan Leaf, [=JaMarcus=] Russell, Brian Bosworth, and Lawrence Phillips.
115	** Tim Tebow is an interesting example, as once he had flamed out as QB in the pros, there were still multiple teams that wanted to hire him; but not as a quarterback. His overall skill range made him only a 2nd-3rd string QB at best, but his numbers were high enough he would've been an excellent all-around, versatile player able to fill various positions at need. But Tebow refused anything that wasn't solely quarterback; and there weren't any of those.
116	* Frequently happens in football when a stellar offensive or defensive coordinator rises to become a head coach and struggles being in charge of both sides of the ball (Rex Ryan, Chip Kelly, Chan Gailey are just three examples).
117	* Nick Foles is one of the most highly-touted backup quarterbacks in the league, with a track record of great success when spelling established starters like Michael Vick and Carson Wentz (led the league in passer rating in 2013, 1-time Pro-bowler, tied the record for touchdown passes in one game, and a Super Bowl ring and MVP award to go with it). However, every time that Foles has been given a ton of money and a green light to start, (e.g. the last year of his first stint in Philadephia, and his ill-fated turns as the starter in St. Louis and Jacksonville) he has struggled.
118	* Major League Baseball has what's known as the "Quad-A player," named for those who dominate at AAA (the highest level of MLB's minor league system) but can't replicate that success at the major league level.
119	* This can also happen in Cricket when the national selectors of a team usually appoint the best individual player in the team at the time as Captain. This results in a team captain who may be capable of individually winning matches for his team, but may not display the inspirational leadership to motivate others, or tactical leadership in the deployment of bowlers, field positions etc. Examples were Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Michael Atherton, Shaun Pollock, Sanath Jaysuriya, Kim Hughes, Graham Gooch, Ian Botham [[note]]ironically, the chosen successor of Mike Brearley, one of England's most successful captains who would have been the first to admit that he wasn't good enough ''as a player'' on the international stage[[/note]] and many others.
120	* In UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball, there have been a handful of cases of successful high school coaches getting promoted directly to an FBS level head coaching job, and, as you'd expect, they tend to fail spectacularly. Oddly, the most famous case of this, Gerry Faust getting hired at Notre Dame from Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati in 1981, was also the most successful, with three winning seasons out of five and a 30-26-1 overall record before he was let go. The other notable examples--Bob Commings (Massillon Washington HS in Ohio to Iowa in 1974), Todd Dodge (Southlake Carroll in Texas to North Texas in 2007), Tony Sanchez (Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas to UNLV in 2015)--all endured a few dismal seasons before being let go.
121	** 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 (including winning a Big 12 Championship), but Craig Bohl has had a mediocre tenure at Wyoming.
122	* 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 an AudienceAlienatingEra, 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 an AudienceAlienatingEra 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.
123	* A curious trait about the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague New England Patriots]]' long-time coach Bill Belichick is how his 'coaching tree' (subordinate and assistant coaches who go on to become head coaches in other teams) has seen very little success despite the fame and talent of the Patriots coaching staff. The two most infamous examples of failed attempts at exporting the Patriot Way are Matt Patricia and Bill O'Brien.
124	** Matt Patricia's rise mirrors that of Belichick surprisingly closely: Both were defensive coordinators with two UsefulNotes/SuperBowl wins on their record before getting the head coaching job. Patricia went to the Detroit Lions in 2018, where he implemented a regime that attempted to import the Patriots' famously strict discipline and training programs to a team that was known for being a bit directionless. Whereas that style of coaching worked in the Patriots where everybody understands what they are signing up for, it was a disaster among the rookie and veteran Lions players who resented the sudden crackdown on their freetime with little to show for it. The Lions went from a team that had made the playoffs two times in four years under Jim Caldwell, to a team that was 13-29-1 when Patricia was fired after two and a half years. He ultimately went back to the Patriots as an offensive line coach.
125	** Bill O'Brien, who previously held a range of offensive coach jobs with the Patriots, became head coach of the Houston Texans in 2014, where he also became known for having a heavy hand in the team's front office. Belichick is famous for being both the Patriots' head coach and their general manager, leading to a hardball style of contract negotiations and trades that is willing to sacrifice expensive star players in the name of a more equally-matched roster. O'Brien seemingly tried to do the same thing, but was significantly less financially savvy, and his leadership of the Texans became known for a string of disjointed and expensive trades that gradually drained the team of talent.
126	** After two failed head coaching stints we can now also add Josh [=McDaniels=] to this list. He first joined the Patriots in 2001 as a personnel assistant and by 2006 had worked his way up to offensive coordinator. In 2008 he was poached by the Broncos to become their new head coach, starting off with an 8-8 record before getting canned 3/4 of the way through his second season with his team sitting at 3-9. After a stint as the Rams' OC he returned to the Patriots, later agreeing to become the new head coach of the Colts in 2018 before backing out at the last minute (which caused his agent to quit in disgust), then finally agreeing for real to become the new Raiders HC in 2022. This went about as well as his first run in the AFC West, going 6-11 the first year and getting fired 8 games into the second for a combined W-L record of 9-16 with the Raiders and 20-33 for his career. Both of [=McDaniels=]' head coaching tenures were known for his teams inability to protect a lead or win close games, [[HostilityOnTheSet poor working relationships with his players]] (particularly on the offensive side of the ball), and his now former teams showing immediate improvement once he was removed from the equation.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
130	* 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 [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership 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). It's also been observed that this can result in the opposite problem, with individuals who might be great politicians or masters of grand strategy being locked out of the higher levels of the pyramid where they would excel because the system to let them advance only tests for a completely different skillset largely irrelevant to success in those fields.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Theatre]]
134	* Gilbert and Sullivan light operas liked to parody this trope:
135	** ''HMS Pinafore'' has Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, whose entire career is based on The Peter Principle. He was first a chore boy at a law firm, promoted to a clerk because he cleaned up so well, promoted to an articled clerk because was good at writing documents, then to a partner because of his legal knowledge. He hits the ceiling here, making a successful run at Parliament due to his success, but has no mind for politics, and just votes the way his party wants him to. This ingratiates him to the elites, who promote him to the admiralty, despite having no nautical experience whatsoever. He was based on the RealLife Hugh Childers who, while well-regarded as a politician, was a dreadful First Lord of the Admiralty.
136	** The [[PopculturalOsmosis famous]] Major General's Song in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' references this, with Major General Stanley rattling off his knowledge of a variety of fields, only to get to his military expertise, of which there is none to speak of. The implication being that he owes his position to excellent performance in officer school, despite having no actual military experience, something that was rather common at the time.
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Webcomics]]
140	* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'':
141	** Stanley the Plaid is an excellent fighter and tactician who wields a weapon forged by the gods. Once he earns a promotion to Overlord, however, his absolutely ''abysmal'' strategic chops come into play. Worse, since he's the keystone of his KeystoneArmy, he can't go out and use his real skills lest he die in battle and doom his entire kingdom, since he steadfastly refuses to name an heir.
142	** Jillian, on the other hand, refuses to stand back and much prefer being a [[WarriorPrince Warrior Queen]], much to the dismay of her own commanders. She is, by a fair margin, the most powerful fighter of her side -- and that's without an artifact weapon.
143	* In ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'', WordOfGod claims the protagonists' BadBoss Commander Antonius Schaefer was formerly a brilliant field agent (as evidenced by his [[http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2011-09-27/comic/the-cesspool/a-would-heroically-struggle-to-the-death-with-again/ fight with Edward Bay]]) but was promoted into becoming an incompetent bureaucrat.
144	* Discussed in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''. [[https://kevinandkell.com/2018/kk0709.html Looking at the numbers of her company]], notices Rhonda is her best hunter. But then one of her subordinates points out eventually she will need to make a hard choice... And decide when to promote her outside of hunting.
145	* In ''WebComic/{{Lackadaisy}},'' ProfessionalKiller Mordecai Heller was once one half of a pair of enforcers at the Lackadaisy gang, but defected to a new position as TheDragon at the much larger Marigold gang. His new boss has him managing a pair of minions of his own, [[OverzealousUnderling overkill-happy]] bandits the Savoys. He is depicted as being near-universally ''terrible'' at reining them in, with NoSocialSkills to judge when they'll steamroll him, or otherwise ignore his orders, a fact they readily {{Exploit\|ed}} to do anything from hazing him to ''scarring'' him. Mordecai himself has begun to realize the position he's in, and {{Exploit\|ed}}s his genuine inability to control the Savoys to play "good cop" while blackmailing an informant.
146	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Andi, the [[WrenchWench chief engineer]] of the [[CoolAirship airship]] ''Mechane'', is invaluable in that role. She routinely fixes equipment and keeps the ship in the air when it should be out of commission. When she pulls [[TheMutiny a short lived mutiny]] on the acting captain Bandana, however, she proves to be a terrible ship's captain. She tries to apply some of the same techniques and points of view used as a chief engineer only to find that they don't apply to running the ship, she refuses to pay attention to expertise of other crew members, ([[{{Hypocrite}} despite Andi having previously criticized Bandana for the same thing]]) and during a critical moment she gets so distracted by the need to fix something that she runs off to do it... temporarily leaving the ship without a captain while she's occupied. During that time all it takes is a short talk from Bandana to several nearby crew members to get them to decide to [[AntiMutiny free Bandana and end Andi's brief reign as captain]].
147	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ThePeterPrinciple