Tag Archives: competence

Life Happens or Does It?

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“I can’t believe what just happened,” Cora explained. “We have been waiting for six weeks for a special material. Today, it landed on our loading dock, and it’s the wrong material.”

“And?” I asked.

“It’s got a six week lead time. We’re two weeks beyond deadline already,” she lamented. “The customer calls me twice a day. Yesterday, I told them the material would be here today. And, now it’s going to be another six weeks. I checked the SKU number and saw the mistake we made in ordering.”

“It seems like this is happening a lot, lately?” I made a question out of a statement.

“I just don’t know what it happening to us. Bad luck, I guess.” Cora looked disoriented.

“Is that the way life is? A series of things that happen to you?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, isn’t that just the way life is?”

“Depends on the way you see things,” I nodded. “If you see life as a series of things that happen to you, things will continue to happen to you. If you see things as a series of accomplishments, you will behave differently.”

“How so?” Cora looked at the ceiling, then back to me.

“If this project is just something that happens to you, then the project will take its own twists and turns before it ends eight weeks late. If this project is a series of accomplishments that you personally drive, what changes?”

“You mean, we might double-check SKU numbers?” she smiled.

“Double-check SKU numbers, create a project schedule that accommodates real lead times on materials, call the customer before they call you to manage expectations. It’s all in the way you see the world and how you participate.”

Permission and Competence

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“That makes sense,” Nadia agreed. “I have been guilty of empowering my team to do things they did not have the capability to do. Didn’t turn out so well.”

“Yes, that weasel word of empowerment has very little to do with granting permission,” I replied. “Empowerment, or rather authority to make a specific decision has more to do with competence. It is competence that creates authority, not permission.”

Authority and Competence

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“So, accountability and authority go together?” Nadia asked.

“You cannot have the accountability for an outcome, unless you have the authority to make the decision that goes with it,” I nodded. “You cannot have the authority to make the decision without the accountability for the outcome. So, yes, they go together. One more element, however. Do not give someone the authority to make a decision for which they do not have the competence to make.”

“What do you mean,” she asked.

“Do not give a shipping clerk the authority to make the decision on an engineering spec for a raw material. The shipping clerk may receive it from a vendor, but it is likely the competence to determine the correct specification for the part lies with someone else. Be careful who you delegate authority to.”

Guiding Value in Hierarchy

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“But, if I delegate things out to other people, meaning, if I delegate decision making to other people, doesn’t that erode my power, as the CEO?” Suzanne wanted to know.

“If power is that important to you?” I replied.

“Isn’t that why I started this company, built it up from scratch? I am the one who made all the decisions. I am the one who had all the accountability,” she protested.

“And, you still have all the accountability. In the beginning, it was appropriate for you to make all the decisions, there was nobody else around. And, as the number of customers grew from a handful, to a dozen, to a hundred, they demanded your organization grow to accommodate their needs. As your organization grew, through necessity, you had to delegate, first tasks, then decisions. To the point where you now feel a loss of control.”

“And, a loss of power,” Suzanne quickly added.

“And, there is the rub. You see your organization as a hierarchy of power. Don’t kid yourself, the world is biologically ordered into a hierarchy of value. You see the value in your hierarchy as one of power. A power hierarchy begins to weaken the purpose of the organization’s original intent. This is a very serious shift, to understand your organization, not as a power hierarchy, but a hierarchy of competence. And, when you see it that way, what changes?”

Positive Attitude is Not Enough

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I’ve been watching a lot of hockey lately. Disclosure, I am rooting for the Florida Panthers. I noticed a commercial pitting the heart and determination of any hypothetical hockey team approaching a game with its opponent. The message was that every player on both teams had the same dreams, the same exhilaration, the same passion to win. The commercial ends with a cliffhanger encouraging you to watch the game.

The commercial admits that we often think the team with the most heart will win, that positivity will triumph. I assume most people wake up every day with the full intention to do their best. There will still be winners and losers. Mental determination is not enough. It is competence that determines the difference. Competence is the combination of capability and technical knowledge, coupled with practiced performance. That will determine who wins the Stanley Cup.

Steps to Necessity

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“My question still stands,” Erica was insistent. “How do I get my team to the point where they believe performance is necessary?”

“It starts with competence,” I replied. “We cannot perform at a level where we are not competent. If we are not competent, then, not only will it NOT happen, it cannot be believed to be necessary. So, the first step in believing in the necessity of performance is to build the competence required.”

Erica was a good student. “And, competence is a combination of capability, skill and practiced performance?”

“Moreover,” I responded, “if we have the capability, possess the required skill and practice to the point of habit, then necessity follows. The habit of pace, at quality spec, produces the necessity of performance.”

Nature of Necessity

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“How does necessity work?” Erica wanted to know.

“Think of something in your life that is necessary, nothing complicated, but something you do that is necessary,” I replied.

“Okay, I brush my teeth, not because my mother told me, though that is how I started, but because I believe it is necessary.”

“So, in the beginning, your mother told you, and you followed, not because it was necessary, but because you knew you she would continue to remind you until you complied.”

“And, now,” Erica picked up, “I do it because I believe it is necessary.”

“Now, think about your team. You want them to do something, perform at a pace, and in a way that meets a quality spec, because you believe it is necessary?”

“Yes,” Erica nodded.

“But is your team doing it because you believe it is necessary or because they believe it is necessary?” I prompted.

Erica shrugged. “No, they are only doing it because I told them to do it.”

“And, they will continue to do it as long as you are around to remind them to pick up the pace and pay attention to quality. But, the instant you are gone, they will only do what they believe is necessary. Necessity is not what you believe, it’s what they believe.”

Of Competence

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“Where do I start?” Melanie asked. “I have things that I will ask my team to do. Each thing has a performance standard that is necessary. If you say the only measure of performance is performance, where do I start?”

“Before you put performance to the test, you must assess, take an inventory of your team. What are the things we examine when we look at performance?” I asked.

“First is competence,” Melanie replied. “If the team, and its members, are not competent, they will fall short.”

“And what is competence?” I pressed.

“Competence is a combination of capability and skill,” she nodded. “Capability is the cognitive ability to see the goal at some time in the future, organize the activity to get there and accommodate all the obstacles that may or not get in the way.”

“And skill?” I said.

“Skill is made of two things,” Melanie thought out loud. “There is always some technical knowledge that must be accounted for, but then practiced performance, over and over until the action is smooth, without friction.”

“So, competence is where you must start,” my turn to nod. “Is your team competent to accomplish the goal you have in mind, as the manager?”

Management Panacea

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“I have a new team,” Alex announced. “We had a tough week. I think I may have thrown them into the deep end of the pool and just expected them to swim.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I know it was a complicated project, but it was the next project on the schedule, had to be done,” he described. “Lots of moving parts, a bit of coordination. Problem is, this new team didn’t even have the basic fundamentals down, much less the ability to sequence each step of the process.”

“And, your game plan?” I wanted to know.

“I was thinking about one of those team building programs, you know, get everybody to know each other. I hear good reviews for that type of activity.”

“Do you really think that’s the problem?” I shook my head. “You have a new team, no skills, no understanding, practically incompetent. No little program, no matter now popular, is a substitute for incompetence. That team building exercise may be useful down the road, but what would be a more important first step?”

Competence and Happiness

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“A new day, a new way?” I asked.

Sophia smirked. “Yes, but this is more difficult than I thought. I mean, I thought I would like this kind of work, I thought I would be good at it.”

“Conventional wisdom,” I said. “Isn’t that the pursuit of happiness? Find something you like and you will be good at it.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like the work, it’s interesting, but it doesn’t seem to come natural to me,” she said, shaking her head.

“It is possible you have it backwards,” I nodded. “We like activity in which we are competent, not the other way around. Just because you like something doesn’t mean you are competent. Just because you are interested and read a book about basketball does not mean you are a good 3-point shooter. On your way to becoming a good 3-point shooter, which takes practice over practice, as you become competent, you will find your happiness. Those who are competent in their pursuit will find the most satisfaction. Those who are not competent, who did not practice, will soon become disinterested and go another way.”