Your team members’ competence in their roles is a significant factor in your profitability and, more importantly, in protecting your brand and its reputation. Competence in multiple areas enables flexibility in pursuing more complex projects with fewer people.
Have you ever had to slow down the completion of a project because your most competent technician was working on another project? What if a great new project opportunity arises but your ace salesperson isn’t available to bring that project home? Will you send in your “B Team”? If so, how might that turn out?
Make Competence A Key Growth Goal
Make demonstrated competence (DC) and active learning (AL) key growth goals for associates. Make these a part of your company culture. It can have an amazing impact on morale and create financial opportunities for associates.
I reflect on my military experience in the Marines. If I wanted to make more money, I needed to add a stripe to my arm. To acquire that next enlisted promotion (pay raise), the Marines had a well-defined requirement for both DC and AL, along with the possession of demonstrated leadership (DL) qualities.
Why is this important for your business? Because you might fall victim to the natural cycle of associate retirement, meaning your most valuable DC technicians, service leaders and sales team members go fishing.
Finding good talent in our industry is tough these days. Don’t make things worse by letting your most competent people leave without having formulated a plan to allow them to share their knowledge and pass the torch.
Proactively planning succession strategies today will allow for mentoring those less competent associates to lay the groundwork for tomorrow. Give your DC associates the task and challenge of mentoring those who will carry your culture into the future!
Competence comes in four levels, and each one has different needs for growth in competence and confidence. I will cover these levels in a four-part series, beginning here.
Let’s get started!
Unconscious Incompetence (UI)
This basically means, “They don’t know what they don’t know.” This comes in two distinct varieties.
The first group is fresh hires who are new to the industry and just starting a career, or perhaps changing careers. They are hired for their potential — not their current competence.
This group needs a serious onboarding process to start climbing the competence ladder. They will need a coach (their boss) and a mentor (to build DC) to grow specific skill stacks. A senior manager should be assigned as their sponsor.
A blended training program that provides feedback on DC, delivered in progressive phases, will drive ROI for your hiring decision. It will also “walk your talk” of company culture.
Warning: Don’t take this process lightly. The next generation of associates are not shy about sharing their disappointments in your onboarding process.
The second variety is dead weight. These are people who are blissfully ignorant, unaware or not coachable, and who will be a drain on your profits, management time and customer satisfaction.
Key indicators are pointing fingers, not accepting responsibility, skirting from accountability and bad mouthing the company. Try not to contract “Manageritis.”
This affliction is prevalent among new managers who believe they can rehabilitate anyone with enough time and effort. They often can’t, and they will eventually learn a hard lesson. With these folks, the best option might be to offer them a new career path (hopefully, with your competitors!).
What follows are some telltale signs of UI:
- Sloppy work habits that don’t get the job done right the first time.
- Lateness on delivering assigned work.
- Other associates do their work for them because it will be faster.
- Received training is not applied or does not deliver expected results.
- Associates or customers resist working with them at all costs.
- Poor onboarding and training process that doesn’t include “demonstration of skills developed.”
Again, they are oblivious to their lack of competence, and they don’t know what they don’t know.
Coaching May Help Guide You
Some coaching might help guide you, as a business owner, do better. Your hiring and interview process is key to recruiting or promoting individuals who will become your valued Unconscious Competent (UC) people during their careers. Slowing your hiring process down and adding a few steps can pay great dividends.
What follows are a few steps to consider implementing if you don’t already have them in place.
- Check the candidate’s knowledge of your company and what you do. Active learners who are self-starters will have done some homework before they showed up and should have some insightful questions.
- Do some objective evaluations to better understand them, their method of communication and their “fit” for the job. We provide and use DiSC assessments with all our clients to better understand communication styles. This helps make interviewing much more effective.
- Invite departments with whom they will be working to assist with interviewing prospects. This helps you to gain different perspectives.
I’ll catch you next month for Part 2 of this series, focusing on Conscious Incompetence (CI)!
