Muriel took a measured breath. “I have an uneasy feeling about my position here, and I don’t know why,” she explained. “Things are going well, at least they seem to. But I think things are going to change. And I am not sure I will be prepared to adapt quick enough.”

“Things are going well, now?” I asked.

“Well, yes.”

“When did things begin to go well?”

Muriel laughed. “You are right, things weren’t always this rosy. There was a time when it was tough. But I got better. And as I got better, things got easier.”

“So, things got easier as you became more competent in your role, here, as a manager?” I probed.

Muriel nodded affirmative. “Competence,” she repeated.

“And we know things will change, again, because they always do. Change in your industry, in your company, on your team and with yourself. And when things change, you are faced with your own incompetence.”

Muriel winced. Close to home, perhaps. I continued. “But you do adapt and you do change. But tell me, when you successfully perform something new, for the first time, does that make you competent?”

“No,” she responded. “Competence requires practice, doing it well over and over, until it becomes a habit.”

“So competence is not simply acquiring an occasional new skill, but acquiring a new habit.” -TF