Confidence is a trait highly correlated with leadership. Most people perceive a confident person to be competent. False perception. Result? Many incompetent people occupy leadership positions.
Almost all confident men are perceived as competent. Not all competent men show confidence. Competent men who don’t demonstrate confidence are overlooked for confident (yet incompetent) men who portray signs of competence in appearance. Classic human bias.
Here’s where the problem compounds; confident men who are not competent begin to learn how they’ve managed to “get here”. They have effectively fooled others to attain leadership role. How do they secure it? By doubling down with narcissism, charm and manipulation.
You get a dysfunctional hierarchy, by design, that has all the sociopaths in the middle, applying downward undesirable pressure on competent men deserving of ascension, while feeding misinformation upwards to the bosses who got fooled from their confidence in the first place.
How often do bosses get fooled by seemingly competent men? Very often statistically. Over half of the individuals occupying leadership positions perform poorly.
Why is it difficult to replace a poor leader? Because the rules aren’t fair. You’re playing infinite games (willing to cooperate and get what you deserve). They’re playing finite games (willing to take you out).
So what happens? You’re fired before you know it. So whats the alternative? Friendship. What’s the best way to fool a person? Help them out. They won’t see you coming when you feed the ego.
Upward movement is an impossible task. You have to know the rules. Watch the landscape. Use other people’s errors as springboards, and befriend finite players in authoritative positions. Build and leverage. Until the moment comes… You will know when it comes.