How do some people make it into very senior roles while being so utterly crap

[StealthPolarBear]

I need to know how it's done :o

Like someone else said, the NHS is awash with people often just one grade higher than their competency should permit.

research shows that men will go for promotion when they can do 40% of the job description but for women it’s more like 90%

In the public sector at least that no longer seems to be the case. Plenty of women are promoted beyond their capabilities by doing the usual: talking the talk and impressing the (poor) senior management team that they're doing a good job.
It's easy to fool management because they're useless and so the cycle continues.

Shit floats imo.

I used to do exec assessment and there was absolutely a significant percentage of white men who were in their senior roles because of a combination of knowing the right people, being good at sport, and having completely unjustified confidence. And, of course, having a dick. It used to make me quite angry thinking about what some of the female and BAME leaders I saw, who were invariably sharp, focused and competent, could have done with the same advantages.

It's the Dunning-Kruger effect basically - incompetent people don't know they're incompetent, because the skills required to recognise a good judgement are the same as the skills needed to make a good judgement in the first place.

Shit does indeed float, it also runs. I'm at the bottom in my job and any shit in my job gets passed around till it all comes to me.

What do you think makes a good manager?

Someone who actually listens to you and tries to solve problems. Someone who treats you with respect and like an adult.

The occasional thanks goes along way.

A good manager; understanding that one size does not always fit all.

I'm a face that doesn't fit type. Amazing the number of middle-aged men of 5'10"+ that don't seem to grasp that being a youngish looking 5"2' female with the physical presence of a year 7 requires a completely different style of behaviour management to compensate for my significantly reduced physical presence... particularly when dealing with teenaged boys with small town rapidly dating attitudes to equality. I need a less orthodox style, lots of humour to compensate for being dwarfed by those I am asserting authority on, and filling the space my body lacks with slightly eccentric personality. It's amazing the number of people that don't get it.

So I would add, being quick to utililise any passing buzzwords and fashions in the industry, lots of arselicking the right people, being quick to seize the next opportunity and jump to the next stage.

Critical thinking is not an asset to rapid promotion.

A good manager looks at what people actually do, rather just listening to what they say they do.

A good manager doesn't just take the easy way out. Too many appease or ignore the CFs in the workplace at the expense of the good workers.

And a good manager doesn't hide behind jargon and empty rhetoric.

Critical thinking is not an asset to rapid promotion. How true.