In 1964, as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart declared about pornography, “I’ll know it when I see it!”
It is the same for competence, confidence and the flipsides of them. We want a dentist to be confident when she works on our teeth. We want a teacher to be confident and competent when we send our children to school. It is the same for business.
Exposure
Testing one’s abilities is a key ingredient to building confidence. Observe a toddler in action. They fall down and pick themselves up right away. Then, they test their caretaker’s reaction to see if they should cry or not!
Personal mastery
Mastery grows confidence. Success is perceived at “conquering” a task rather than getting it resolved on the first round. That is why practice is key to building confidence.
Preparation
My coaching mantra is to prepare to meet your greatness! Preparation builds confidence. It is a form of practice and provides an opportunity to walk through situations. It dissolves doubt because you have determined and imagined different scenarios.
Build an environment of trust
For employees, family members or personally, an environment must exist that allows for mistakes. There must be an opportunity to correct the errors or inaccuracies for maximum learning to occur. Research shows we learn more from our mistakes than solving an issue right away. The sequence of events teaches us at each level.
Build critical thinking skills
Move away from getting the “right” answer. Observe students in a classroom, for example. The teacher has an opportunity to provide exploration within the environment. If there is only one answer, not everyone will understand it. Different learning styles will arrive at answers differently. I know math is more precise, but learning how a student arrived at a solution, can inform the teacher where more help would serve.
The Antidote
On the flipside, I have observed incompetence as a symptom of several conditions:
- The person has never been exposed to positive platinum service, for example.
- The seemingly incompetent person was hired in error based on an emotional decision rather than traits.
- The incompetence generates from a negative attitude—“It can’t be done.”
- The incompetence emanates from a “bare minimums” attitude because going further may produce failure!
- Incompetence can be the result of poor training and can develop a poor attitude in the person, especially if there is no opportunity to rectify a situation.
Observe incompetence
One way to combat incompetence is to observe it. Include incompetence in your record. Discuss it with your team. Consider the amount of time wasted, what was sacrificed in the incident, or what you found. We can learn from those models by writing an antidote to them. Record by voice or digits all the incidents you encounter. At the end of the week, write an additional result to the items and post them in your blog or social media. If you work on a team, have them do the same exercise and report back at the next meeting.
For the positive example, observe competence and track it in a competence log. For example, how did the business attempt to serve you while you were waiting? In-‘N-Out Burger does a fantastic job with this idea when there are long lines at the drive through. An associate comes out with an order board and places your order while you are waiting in your car. It is ready when you get to the window!
My coaching antidote
My coaching antidote to poor attitudes and unqualified people is to hire traits—qualifications being equal, hire the traits required to create the best outcome. For example, in a high energy, production environment, hiring someone who has to complete one task at a time is a detriment. They are not bad, but they will become frustrated and accuracy will be sacrificed. Optimistic, energetic open people can thrive in a high performance environment.
Be sure to “check under the hood” for appropriate hires that satisfy your vision for the optimum team.
Please share your experiences here or on my website: https://www.PositivePotentials.com Happy recording.
In our book (see products), Magnetic Leadership, I pour my passion about the learned, values-driven leadership style. My theme centers around The End of Dominance: Enter the Multi-Dimensional Leader.