Influence by Incompetence
by Donald W. Hendon, Ph.D.
Why do so many really bad “public servants” keep getting re-elected, over and over? One reason may be because they’re incompetent, paradoxical as that may seem. Let me explain:
Ever heard of something called “The Peter Principle”? It’s been around since 1969 when Professor Laurence J. Peter wrote a best-selling book, “The Peter Principle—Why Things Always Go Wrong.” He said you’ll keep on getting promoted until you reach your level of incompetency—not competency, but incompetency. Then, you’ll stick there forever, because it’s too dangerous to promote you again and because it’s too hard to demote you—the guy who promoted you would lose face if you were demoted.
This may explain why so many voters don’t want to admit they were wrong in their choice and why Obama continues to have high job approval ratings among Democrats. But does this mean that all businesses are headed by incompetents? That all heads-of-state are incompetent? I’ll get back to that later.
Right now, what does incompetence have to do with influencing others? One of the tactics in my book, 365 Powerful Ways to Influence, is “The Power of Powerlessness.” It’s defensive tactic number one. You can use it in three different ways to influence others:
First: Show the other person how much he stands to lose if he takes advantage of you. For example, tell him, “If I go bankrupt, you won’t get anything from me at all.” Franklin Roosevelt bragged about using this. He felt that once people started making contributions to Social Security, they would have a vested interest in it and would not demand that the program be repealed. He was right.
Second: Pretend you’re incompetent, even if that’s not true. For example, many executives pretend they don’t know how to operate a photocopying machine when they really know how. They pretend they’re incompetent in order to get more attention from—and power over—their employees. I call this “Creeping Paralysis” or “Calculated Incompetence.” Politicians have huge egos, and they won’t do this in public. But congressional aides have told me that they do this at their office. Maybe they’re just plain lazy, or maybe they think it’s a good way to get more power over the “little people.”
Third: Pretend to be powerless in order to get sympathy from the other person. People who feel sympathy for you, who pity you, will try to help you. And of course, this gives you more power. Watch what happens after the 2012 elections when the Republicans get control of the Senate again. I’ll bet that Obama will complain loudly about how his hands are tied and can’t deliver change anymore.
I don’t think most businesses are run by incompetents. Most are consistently profitable, and that means they are run by competent executives. Those businesses that consistently lose money go out of business, and their incompetent executives look around for new jobs.
I don’t think that all governments are run by incompetents, but I think most of them are. One reason is that governments don’t have to make a profit to stay in operation. Businesses do.
This may be changing, though. A few local governments are starting to outsource operations to private companies. Examples: Prisons, police departments, etc. (San Carlos, California, outsourced police protection recently.)
In politics, it’s easy for incompetent incumbents to get re-elected. It’s often hard for the electorate to see through their lies. Why? Because they are very good at lying. (Dirty trick 55 in my book.) They make a good living by lying. And In some nations, such as the Philippines and Venezuela, incumbent politicians who get rich through corruption have enough money to bribe people to vote for them. (Dirty trick 20.) I’ve heard this happens often in Chicago. How about where you live?
Who were the most incompetent presidents in American history? History books say that Ulysses Grant and Warren Harding were pretty bad. In my lifetime, I think Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama were extremely incompetent. Of course, I may be prejudiced. When I was a marketing professor at a university in Georgia, Carter was Governor. The cheapskate never paid me for the consulting work I did for his peanut farm. He’s owed me $5,000 for more than 30 years!
How many people think Obama is incompetent? In the March 30 Quinnipiac Poll, his approval rating was 42 percent, and his disapproval rating was 48 percent. 50 percent thought he does not deserve a second term. I guess this means that those 50 percent think he’s incompetent.
Assuming Ford, Carter, and Obama were very incompetent while they were President, why do I think they were influential? Because they influenced the people who didn’t like them into voting against them and into joining groups opposed to them. How many of you readers became more politically active when Ford and Carter were running for re-election? How many of you will become more politically active in 2012 when Obama is up for re-election?
Some people get the Peter Principle mixed up with “Parkinson’s Law.” It’s similar. It says, “The amount of work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a book with this title way back in 1957. He said this is why so much waste happens in government and business. For example, the British Colonial Office had significantly more employees after the UK had no more colonies than when the British Empire was at its height.
Thinking about the Peter Principle and Parkinson’s Law wants to make you sigh and sadly think, “There’s nothing we can do about the mess we’re in. Even if we elect different people at the next election, nothing will change. They’ll become as corrupt and uncaring as the bunch we have now. The only thing we’ll notice is this—they’ll be either less incompetent or more incompetent than the ones they replaced. And government will keep getting bigger and bigger, and even more inefficient.”
I hope I’m wrong about this dark side of influence. Am I? I’d love to hear from you. What do you think? Please contact me at donhendon3@gmail.com.
Noted consultant and seminar-giver Donald Hendon has often contributed to Stupid Frogs. He is the author of 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. You can download chapter 1, free of charge, by going to his website, <www.donaldhendon.com>. There are 6 kinds of tactics: Assertive (121 of them), defensive (92), submissive (16), cooperative (24), dirty tricks (81), plus 31 tactics to prepare you for your negotiations. Don lives in Mesquite, Nevada, near Las Vegas.