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Are lateral moves really all that the Athletic Training profession has to offer? Are ATs capped on the professional hierarchy ladder? Are we able to thrive in a hierarchy positional promotion without proper skill competency? How many athletic trainers can really be funneled into the head AT position at your organization?
The Peter Principle is a risk factor when ATs are striving for professional growth, a situation of moving up the ladder without full skill expertise or competency. How do we avoid the Peter Principle?
You first need to define your personal definition of "Growth.”
Traditionally, achieving growth professionally or through compensation is incentivized with movement up the hierarchy ladder. In the system that ATs conventionally operate in, the natural progression would be after becoming a content expert, they are rewarded with a positional promotion which is met with new and different responsibilities, usually not fully AT related. The best way to promote someone is by understanding the person’s content expertise or specialization that makes them successful at their job and reward them for their proficiency.
We may be the best AT clinically, but we may lack the content expertise that a higher-level position requires to be successful... and to be happy or feel fulfilled.
A CEO has a skill set of leadership and management, not necessarily content expertise, but they have mastered the skill set on how to lead those with the content expertise. They are able to move with ease to different industries because they understand their role responsibilities, leading a group to success.
For vertical growth, ATs may need to examine how our profession is operating. The athletic training profession has divided our specialties by work setting, while other healthcare providers have divided by type of patient or pathology, "specialty". This could be a limiting factor for AT's vertical professional growth due to never being able to fully specialize in what we excel at skill wise. When you are promoted, you should be comfortable and competent while maintaining the capacity to perform in the new position.
Why is the traditional promotion ladder stuck in a hierarchical leadership/managerial system when we are better suited at becoming content experts in the field of athletic training? Shouldn’t we be promoted upon the specializations that we achieve?
As you increase your professional responsibilities through the hierarchy ladder, the metric of success will shift. How will you reposition yourself to be in a position to achieve success and not be cornered by the Peter Principle of rising up to incompetence?
Shelby 6/2024
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