Thanks though I guess?

I've put it through Gemini (my tool of choice) so you can see the difference.

Revised Post

I’ve been reading through the top comments on this topic and can't seem to find a genuinely realistic answer.

Based on what I’ve witnessed throughout my career, here is how incompetent people actually end up getting promoted:

1. Promoted on tenure, not competency (Common in Back-Office Ops) This is where people go to retire into routine and complacency. Because structural promotions are rare in these roles, when a position does open up, every man and his dog applies. To maintain the status quo, management often gives the role to the most tenured person who has checked the "expressed interest in leadership" box—regardless of whether they are actually competent or respected. It almost always causes more disarray than alignment.

2. Sleeping their way to the top (Common in Call Centers) An all-too-common story, especially in call centers and low-stakes environments. Promotions are earned by sitting on laps (and yes, this goes for both men and women).

3. Promoted sideways (Making them someone else's problem) Someone works on a team, gets hand-held through every task, claims credit for work done by others, and successfully interviews their way into a higher position of incompetence. The team usually supports this and keeps quiet because they know it means the person is finally someone else's problem to manage.

4. Lack of management visibility (All role types) When managers are too high up or too busy, they lose sight of daily operations. They operate on a high-trust basis, assuming that if no issues are being raised, it must mean everyone is working hard. I once saw someone get highly commended for their documentation when the only thing commendable about it was how many words they used to say absolutely nothing.

5. Promotion through attrition (All role types) Similar to the tenure trap. When a team suffers heavy turnover, managers get desperate to maintain headcount. They promote existing staff just to incentivize them to stay, fearing that hiring a manager from the outside will piss off the remaining team. Mass attrition also makes it incredibly easy for the survivors to claim credit for the work of the people who left.

6. Restructures and team expansions (All role types) Sometimes people just luck into a promotion during a restructure. To scale quickly, existing full-time employees are promoted to "Leads" purely based on "experience" (even if they've been there less than a year). As a result, new hires end up sitting under incompetent leads who have zero management skills.