Capability Inversions and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

When a less-competent leader of an organization — a group, department, division, or enterprise — must deal with more-competent subordinates, the people involved can descend into a toxic, anger-inducing maelstrom of frustration, paranoia, failure, revenge, and chaos that can threaten the viability of their organization. The Dunning-Kruger effect can play a role, advancing the arrival of unfortunate outcomes.

Some capability inversions escape these disasters. These are the inversions that are in the "open" — inversions that everyone involved acknowledges. I discussed open capability inversions last time, and noted that they usually develop into a leader-and-advisors configuration that works well. The problematic inversions are what I called concealed capability inversions, in which the less-competent leaders (LCLs) try to deny and disguise the inversion, while their more-competent subordinates (MCSs) labor onward trying to complete the organizational mission in spite of the wrong-headed decisions and behavior of the LCL. These concealed capability inversions are the category that are most susceptible to the consequences of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

How the Dunning-Kruger effect manifests itself

Four of the principal findings of Dunning and Kruger [Kruger 1999] are:

• The less competent overestimate their own competence
• The more competent tend to underestimate their own relative competence, as a result of a false consensus effect
• The less competent don't recognize the superior competence of the more competent
• The more competent tend to estimate accurately the incompetence of the less competent

Applying the findings of Dunning and Kruger to concealed capability inversions we can expect that:

• LCLs tend to believe that they are more competent than they actually are
• MCSs tend to believe that they are relatively less competent than they actually are
• LCLs don't fully appreciate how much more competent MCSs are
• MCSs accurately assess the incompetence of their LCLs.

The result of all this is that LCLs don't fully appreciate the gap between their own incompetence and the competence of their MCSs. They probably recognize that there is a gap, but they probably believe that the gap is significantly smaller than it actually is, if not reversed in polarity. MCSs also perceive that there is a competence gap, but they estimate that the gap is just slightly smaller than it actually is.

The dynamics of concealed capability inversions

A concealed Less competent leaders don't
fully appreciate the gap
between their own incompetence
and the competence of their
more competent subordinatescapability inversion isn't invisible. Indeed, concealed might be the wrong word. Denied might be more fitting. For these inversions, we might expect the LCL to deny that the inversion exists, despite feelings of looming insurrection brewing among the MCSs. And the MCSs probably know perfectly well what's going on, though they might have reached an agreement not to speak of the LCL's incompetence openly. An elephant-in-the-room sort of thing can develop.

MCSs then likely endure lives of frustration. Their LCLs blunder through the days making wreckage of the good work of MCSs and rejecting their recommendations. Some MCSs try to respond by devising tactful critiques of their LCL's positions, or they try to intervene to protect their work or the enterprise. Their success in these endeavors is limited.

To many LCLs, criticism by MCSs is unfounded, and worse, the MCSs seem to the LCLs to be unqualified critics, because the LCLs cannot recognize the competence of the MCSs. LCLs are likely to experience MCSs' critiques and interventions as insubordination or even personal attacks. Some LCLs then construct a variety of explanations for interventionist behavior by MCSs. Intervening MCSs are:

• Disloyal, traitorous
• Not team players
• Disgruntled, vengeful, bitter
• Overstepping their bounds, unaware of their proper places
• Greedy or ambitious

If these characterizations, delivered publicly, don't serve to quiet the insurrection, some LCLs then terminate some or all intervening MCSs, hoping to deter any further interventions. Terminations usually deter interventions in the short run, but as LCL incompetence continues unabated, further "insubordination" by MCSs is inevitable.

The leader's intensifying obsession with security

Safety and security are the second level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. [Maslow 1943] According to this model, the lowest-level unmet need in the hierarchy captures our attention, preventing us from attending to the higher-level needs. In the context of a concealed capability inversion, LCLs might feel insecure about their tenure in their position, or they might fear that the capability inversion might be discovered. LCLs in this frame of mind might tend to focus on remedying that insecurity. They are less able to attend to the next level of needs, loving and belongingness. These LCLs have limited energy for true friendship, trust, and acceptance, which are the foundations of high performance organizations.

The LCLs' focus on safety and security helps them allocate personal and emotional resources to consolidating their political positions in the organization. In some cases they also commandeer organizational resources in service of their own agenda of preserving their tenure. And some LCLs might adopt the tactics of bullies to create a "crew" that helps them enforce loyalty to the LCL.

In this way the capability inversion, the LCL's desire to conceal the inversion, and the Dunning-Kruger effect tend to create all that is needed for a toxic work environment that prevents the organization from achieving its goals. First in this series   Top    Next Issue

Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info

Footnotes

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Workplace Politics:

My Boss Gabs Too Much

Your boss has popped into your office for another morning gab session. Normally, it's irritating, but today you have a tight deadline, so you're royally ticked. What can you do?

Obstructionist Tactics: II

Teams and groups depend for their success on highly effective cooperation between their members. If even one person is unable or unwilling to cooperate, the team's performance is limited. Here's Part II of a little catalog of tactics.

False Consensus

Most of us believe that our own opinions are widely shared. We overestimate the breadth of consensus about controversial issues. This is the phenomenon of false consensus. It creates trouble in the workplace, but that trouble is often avoidable.

The Opposite of Influence

The question of why some people are so influential has a partner question: why are others largely ignored, or opposed, even when their contributions are valuable?

Conway's Law and Technical Debt

Conway's Law is an observation that the structures of systems we design tend to replicate our communication patterns. This tendency might also contribute to their tendency to accumulate what we now call technical debt.

See also Workplace Politics and Managing Your Boss for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming December 15: Do My Job

A popular guideline in modern workplaces is "do your job." The idea is that if we all do our jobs, success is most likely. But some supervisors demand that subordinates do their own jobs, plus the jobs of their supervisors. It rarely works out well. Available here and by RSS on December 15.

And on December 22: Internal Audits Without Pain

If adhering to established procedures is part of your job, you probably experience occasional audits. You can manage the pain of the experience by regarding audit preparation as part of the job. Because it is. Here are some tips for navigating audits. Available here and by RSS on December 22.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenEQuetChPjwYBDxmgner@ChacxXTxBssoFmfDfMugoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info

Public seminars

The Power Affect: How We Express Our Personal Power

Many people who possess real organizational power have a characteristic demeanor. It's the way they project their presence. I call this the power affect. Some people — call them power pretenders — adopt the power affect well before they attain significant organizational power. Unfortunately for their colleagues, and for their organizations, power pretenders can attain organizational power out of proportion to their merit or abilities. Understanding the power affect is therefore important for anyone who aims to attain power, or anyone who works with power pretenders. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   
• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   

Bullet Points: Mastery or Madness?

Decision makers in modern organizations commonly demand briefings in the form of bullet points or a series of series of bullet points. But this form of presentation has limited value for complex decisions. We need something more. We actually need to think. Briefers who combine the bullet-point format with a variety of persuasion techniques can mislead decision makers, guiding them into making poor decisions. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 24, 2020, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   
• A recording of a program presented June 24, 2020, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.