What Happens When Incompetent People Lead Organizations?
“Management cares about only one thing. Paperwork. They will forgive almost anything else — cost overruns, gross incompetence, criminal indictments — as long as the paperwork’s filled out properly. And in on time.”
― Connie Willis
It has been known that incompetency is running countries. The more I hear about the daily news in my country, the more I wish I could do something about it. Sadly I cannot.
When we talk about incompetence, we are aiming at the whole human being system of living. When people — as smart they could be — act stupidly enough such that others see the stupidity and talk about it, you know that someone used his powers to screw things up again.
Most people believe that what is happening is nonsense. But no one asked whether they were doing it on purpose or just a coincidence to have a series of stupid announcements, regulations, law enforcement rules, and many more.
We live in a rich country, that doesn’t matter, but the question remains:
Why do we see more incompetent people holding key positions in key organizations and governments?
That question I can’t answer. But to see this irrational/illogical behavior from the key position actors messing up the country year after year. Not giving any consideration to the public.
I am sure that whoever is doing that is doing it either because of Ignorance or on purpose. I tend to say that it’s the mix of both.
So to answer the question,
What happens when these incompetent individuals hold key positions?
The answer is as follows:
1- Overstaffing
When there is no clear planning for the infrastructure of the country and the working power needs, hiring people becomes a nightmare.
In a country where everyone is promised a job after graduation, thousands of graduates wait for jobs. Then when the plan did not work, and the government suddenly faces the obvious truth, overstaffing happens. Hiring more and more people in positions that don’t need that many human resources will stress out the country’s resources and the management.
People start to go to work every day doing nothing, other work more. Both get the same salary, what a system.
2- Overproduction
The production of service or product that it becomes more than what the market needs. In rich countries, that could be a blessing. Rather I call it a curse. When the government can’t determine the country’s basic needs and produce for that need, waste of resources happens.
Incompetency in running an organization by hiring more than the required staff and therefore overproducing and wasting money on people that are not doing their jobs and the services that are not being delivered correctly because of the incompetent decision making.
3- Over-processing/Delays (More Waiting)
Delays in basic citizens’ needs like providing basic paperwork information, resources, supplies, and anything that slows down the flow and wastes time and effort.
In the age of technology, we see more and more people going back to the stone ages by printing out — supposed electronic — IDs. Having to get tens of signatures on a piece of paper to get you started with your startup paperwork. And more and more irrational processes are developed and still used because of the incompetence of the key people in the government.
Making people wait hours and hours every day; the time that a web app can take people 10 minutes, if not less, to get their needs done.
4- Unused Employee Creativity
There are a lot of creative people working in jobs that are killing them day after day. Having to work with an incompetent boss or supervisor daily. The damage done is huge, working in a place where a boss doesn't have any skills in enlisting and empowering his employees, both intellectually and emotionally, in a continuous improvement process.
Rather, we see creativity being thrown away and ignorant superiors are using the power that more incompetent individuals provided, and so on. Having to adapt to the chaos in the workplace is something that creative people do. Unfortunately, this leads to downgrading his skills, creativity, and passion. Leaving him in a complete void a decade down the line.
Why is this happening? What are the reasons?
In short, people are missing honesty, credibility, transparency, sincerity, jealousy for the homeland and its people. Greed has become more and more a norm, and people with higher powers are taking over. This can only hurt the country and the generations to come.
One can only wish that people took Warren Harding’s approach when he said:
“I am not fit for this office and never should have been here.” ― Warren G. Harding
But we all know that’s not going to happen.
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed it.
If you did, it would be great to share it.
You can reach me at @alounpro on Twitter.
Have a lovely day!
