Inability to cooperate with others. More people lose their positions and their big opportunities in life, because of this fault, than for all other reasons combined.

Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important.

Dr. Peter observed that one reason so many employees are incompetent is that the skills required to get a job often have nothing to do with what is required to do the job itself. The skills required to run a great political campaign have little to do with the skills required to govern.

one reason so many employees are incompetent is that the skills required to get a job often have nothing to do with what is required to do the job itself.

Some people are just no good at not being in charge.

One of the main reasons people fail to reach their full potential is because they are unwilling to risk anything. They are fearful of losing, failing, or getting hurt and just want to do the things they believe will keep them safe.

Which would seem to be a good thing — proposing a solution to a problem that people are hungry to solve — except that my view of silos might not be what some leaders expect to hear. That's because many executives I've worked with who struggle with silos are inclined to look down into their organizations and wonder, "Why don't those employees just learn to get along better with people in other departments? Don't they know we're all on the same team?" All too often this sets off a well-intentioned but ill-advised series of actions — training programs, memos, posters — designed to inspire people to work better together. But these initiatives only provoke cynicism among employees — who would love nothing more than to eliminate the turf wars and departmental politics that often make their work lives miserable. The problem is, they can't do anything about it. Not without help from their leaders. And while the first step those leaders need to take is to address any behavioral problems that might be preventing executive team members from working well with one another — that was the thrust of my book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team — even behaviorally cohesive teams can struggle with silos. (Which is particularly frustrating and tragic because it leads well-intentioned and otherwise functional team members to inappropriately question one another's trust and commitment to the team.) To tear

Just know that your supposed superiority is a figment of your own ego. So don’t lord it over them, because it won’t help you advance as a team or as an individual in your field. Instead of getting angry that your colleagues can’t keep up, help pick your colleagues up and bring them with you!

We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

One of the main reasons people fail to reach their full potential is because they are unwilling to risk anything.

A lot of people don’t do well simply because they major in minor things.

If what you do doesn’t make others better at what they do then you are not living up to your potential.

Develop 'strategic incompetence' - people won't ask you to do things you hate to do, if you're bad at them.

Technical people don’t make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.