"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett from “Worstward Ho”

In 1969, Laurence J. Peter advanced his theory that "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence” and The Peter Principle has had a great deal of influence on the teaching of management ever since. While, being an optimist, I can’t help but hope that Dr. Peter’s principle is not as universal as he claimed, I admit that I’ve been concerned about reaching my own level of incompetence before retiring from my professional career.

I also sometimes find it hard to value my knowledge and experience, and other abilities or qualities, as much as others do. I tend to hold myself to a pretty high standard, can be my own worst critic, and have had a very real fear of failing before I reached the finish line of my career. Not of simply failing in the way we all do every day. The failing that helps us learn and grow stronger, but a fear of failing utterly. As I look forward to retirement, less than 9 weeks from today, I’m grateful that I seem to have escaped The Peter Principle, and it appears I will be able to finish my career in a way that will allow me to feel proud of what I’ve accomplished.

Dr. Peter points out that in most hierarchical organizations, we base our selection of candidates to advance to more responsible positions on their performance in their current roles, rather than on the knowledge, experience, and abilities they would need for the new role. Where this is true, the selection process rewards past performance but does little to ensure future success. He paints a bleak picture for such an organization where “in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties” and “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."

I’m glad to say that I don’t believe I’ve seen much evidence that this is the situation at our university. While there will always be those who are more and less successful as they assume more responsible roles, I have participated in may recruitment processes that included significant efforts to understand how candidates’ knowledge, abilities, and experience prepare them for success in a new role, and that consider how they would fit with the culture of the organizations they would serve in that role. In that sense, our organization, while hierarchical, doesn’t entirely fit Dr. Peter’s description of one where candidates are selected based primarily on their performance in their current role. We also make a significant effort to support professional development that allows people to develop the new skills and knowledge they will need to be successful.

As I look at my own apparent escape from The Peter Principle, I’m struck by the fact that the only time I advanced in my career at the university through our recruitment process was when I was initially hired in 1989. Every time since then that I have applied for a more responsible position, I’ve been considered seriously, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Every time I advanced to a more responsible position, it was because our leadership believed I had something to offer in that role and asked me to accept greater responsibility. Perhaps my escape is partly due to the fact that the process used to select me for advancement considered the qualities I’d need to succeed as well as my past performance.

I appreciate that the leaders I served saw something in me that lead them to ask me to do more. That they valued my abilities, and character, and challenged me to grow. To my own credit, I had enough confidence in myself to say yes to these opportunities, and my high standards often meant that striving to meet my own expectations lead me to exceed theirs. With only one exception, I served leaders who encouraged me to keep growing and who supported the professional development activities that helped me increase my value to our university.

I also made some choices with regard to my career aspirations that may have helped ensure that I remained working at a level where I was able to make valuable contributions. Earlier in my career, I had considered seeking a position as Chief Information Officer. I believed I had the vision and leadership ability to serve effectively in that role. After careful consideration, I chose not to pursue that goal and, instead, to remain a senior operational IT leader while advocating for our university to hire its first CIO. While it is possible that I would have made a good CIO, I am satisfied with the choice I made. I never did face the challenge of serving at that more responsible level, and will never know for certain if I could have done so successfully.  

The greater challenges and demands of the increasingly responsible roles I’ve played in my career were a factor in my decision, too. The stress and pressure that came with these positions, including the demands of my own high standards and my difficulty in saying no, took a toll on me. My fear of failing professionally, becoming incompetent to do my job well, were joined by a fear that I would fail physically, mentally, or emotionally before I’d reached a point where I could retire with confidence that my family would be financially secure. A stress-related illness three years ago also helped me decide to retire a bit earlier than I’d originally planned. I’m so very grateful to my wonderful wife, and all our loved ones, for their support as I’ve recovered, and as we’ve made a plan for retirement that allows me to end my career on a high note.

I am relieved to see the finish line so near now! I’m glad that the university hired its first CIO in time for me to help with the transition to that new model for our IT organization. I’m grateful to our CIO and all our colleagues for the way they have allowed me to participate in that process as Executive Director. I’m proud of the teams I have been leading over these past 16 months in my interim role as Director of Client Services, and grateful to the stakeholders whose colleges, schools, and divisions we serve for being such wonderful colleagues as I’ve played one more new role before I say farewell.  

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, with the help of so many others, in my nearly 28 years working in IT at our university, and the 10 years before that in county government and the savings and loan industry. I would never have been able to predict that my professional life would take this course when I graduated from U.C. Davis all those years ago. Who could have guessed that a psychology major who had never taken a single class in IT or computer science would make his living this way? It now seems clear I will have the pleasure of crossing the finish line of my career with my head held high. I feel such gratitude for all my wonderful colleagues, mentors, and friends in this work over the years. My heart is filled to overflowing with love for my family, friends and loved ones, and especially for my precious partner on this journey, my Sue.