As a follow-up to my previous thoughts on the Peter Principle there is one area I think I should touch. In the Air Force we often referred to there being four types of officers.

Type One officers were those with a great deal of ability and a great deal of ambition. These were the ones that would become wing commanders and general officers. These are the ones that lead the service in the highest levels of power.

The Type Two officers were the ones with talent and ability but weren’t super ambitious. These are the ones that became the OICs (officer-in-charge) of vital sections and could later move up to flight commanders or even squadron commanders. They’re good and effective leaders, but they preferred working closer to the mission, honing their technical skills, or directly leading the enlisted troops.

A Type Three officer was one that didn’t have a lot of ability but also didn’t have a lot of ambition, if any. These officers were useful because they were the ones that did all the jobs and additional duties that no one else really wanted to do. Such things as voting officer, helping everyone get their absentee ballots during election years, or they ran the United Way campaign begging everyone to donate, etc.

Then there are the Type Four officers. These are the ones with limited or no ability but a lot of ambition. As a general rule they are also very arrogant and delusional, believing they are the most capable of all. These are the officers that are always looking for the next job or duty title that leads to the next promotion, and that’s even before they’ve mastered the current job. Every decision they make is colored by how it will look on their performance report. Never mind if it hurts those who follow after them or the Air Force as a whole just so long as they look good until they get orders for a new assignment. They’re the ones who screws anyone to get a head and will throw others under the bus without hesitation. Worst of all, they often do get promoted and make others miserable. They don’t trust their subordinates because they could never be trusted, and as such they micro-manage everything. As a result, the branches they direct (I can’t really say lead) are the most inefficient and drag down the whole organization. Unfortunately, they can’t just be dismissed because of their rank. With them the Peter Principle does apply to some degree. However, they weren’t promoted to their level of incompetence because they always lacked competence, it just went unnoticed until their promotion highlighted it.

Considering this last election I have say that Kamala Harris is a Type Four. I’ve seen several articles reviewing her political career from her early days. It seems her greatest talent was winning the next election, and it all finally caught up to her with her running for President. Several have noticed she never won a single primary or delegate, and that goes back to the 2020 election.

Likewise, love him or hate him, you have to admit that Donald Trump is a Type One. True he inherited a substantial fortune, but he did expand it into a significant real estate empire. Additionally, he became a successful reality television star. And now without any political experience he has won his second of three presidential elections. He is indeed a man of great talent and great ambition. While Harris, and Biden, have only the ambition.

#PeterPrinciple, #OfficerTypes, #2024Election