1) they are loyal and take orders from above
2) they are not a threat to those that are above, or those that are going up the ladder (assuming they can be promoted somewhere else)
Also, people tend to go into management when they have kids/get married. These people are conservative/seek stability. They are liked by management because their family ensures compliance and loyalty.
But kids and life situations and advancing age can sap people of the energy to be good at the job they once did. Plus, people do hard work to get where they want to be, and then lay off when they get there, another way that people may appear incompetent: they stopped trying hard when they reached a level of satisfaction.
* People aren't good at everything.
* Jobs at different levels in the org hierarchy require different skills.
* If people are promoted based on skill/merit they eventually arrive at a role for which they are unsuited.
> The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.
In fact, I've almost never worked with people who are proper charlatans, winging it and dreading exposure. They are dealt with by their peers. Most in the rank and file help each other out, confide and support, since we all suffer the same anxieties about trying to be good in a world that seldom recognises achievement.
But the higher one ascends, the more often we encounter people elevated by the Peter Principle to precarious standing, who then preempt being called-out by weaving an air of victimhood or even martyrdom around their position.
"Don't you dare question me" is implied in almost everything they do. These people at the "top" are very, very scared, can't quite understand how they got there, and imagine it will all unravel at any moment. They are also quite often frozen by fear, meaning that an eerie silence surrounds the levers of power which nobody dare touch.
I think "imposter syndrome" is a real thing. But it's much more complex and significant than we're currently understanding it. There are real imposters, who deserve to be ousted, and if we're not careful they will use "imposter syndrome" to entrench further.
This is not a good culture, either for leaders or those they lead.