My thought on the subject of competence is that no one can be competent in isolation. You have to be competent in association or alignment with others. It does not seem complete or healthy if one wears the toga of "master" of one's game by playing independently. The reason for this is that we cannot win alone. No one is truly competent in isolation because one's competence must be measured relative to others.
When one is said to be competent, what exactly does it mean? The following suggestions come to the fore:
Knowledge in area concerned
Knowledge is good. Without access to the right knowledge and the purposeful acquisition of same through deliberate efforts, it is impossible to amount to anything of impact in a specific value space. People want to know your level of mastery or competence in your chosen area or field. In any area of value delivery, knowledge plays a key leadership role. The more you know, the better suited you are to win if you equally apply the knowledge as much as you know or acquire it.
The application of knowledge to fix problems
While it is good to know, it is better to apply. This is where power lies. Application is true power. Application is the know-how; it is the skill that proves and ensures the efficacy of knowledge. You cannot be credited with knowledge until your knowledge is directed towards the solving of problems whether of yourself or of others in your space. The strength of knowledge is when the person who possesses it is able to observe the environment, reflect on happenings, and seek to proffer solutions to the problems, especially working in concert with others. Persons with this skillset should spot the label of competence.
A proactive more than a reactive mind
Being agile is partnership with adaptability. A proactive mind thinks ahead. This mind is a critical thinker who works ahead to prepare against problems that are yet to manifest. From present success, such a mind can proactively predict future failures and then work at doing something about it.
Great observation leads to the provision of great solutions to the problems observed. One takeaway of such a process is that critical thinking has been applied to preempt future occurrence. This is a proactive mind.
A truly competent mind is proactive because that mind works ahead of time since it can predict what is likely to happen and so it applies itself to the situation before it happens. Such a mind does not wait for problems to happen before solution is attempted. Waiting for problems to happen before seeking solutions to them is reactive and often counter-productive.
Emotional intelligence
A cognitively endowed employee who looks down on colleagues cannot be accounted a great team player. Such a person cannot be credited with the badge of competence. As a matter of fact, such a person should not be retained because of the lack of an emotional quotient to match their high cognitive strength. Of what value would his cognition or intellect be when he lacks the use of interpersonal skills?
A competent hand is one who is not only able to work without supervision but who is equally able to work with others in order to achieve shared purpose and vision. Great team players are leadership tools for today and tomorrow. They have great attitude of humility that activates tolerance and cooperation.
Meeting deadlines
Oftentimes, talents who seek perfection are the reasons that teams don't meet deadlines. While it is important to be meticulous, such persons may not be made team leads for the obvious reasons that if they call the shots, they may undermine other team members as they lead. This may lead to the team's inability to meet deadlines.
You can be good. You can even be great. But there is always room for improvement and this quality supports the continuum mindset. What the project demands is what must be delivered at the set time and standards. If team members work in concert by truly harnessing ideas and using tools with certain degree of proficiency, there is no reason why they should not meet up.
Usually, projects do not meet deadlines because teams lack the know-how or they have inadequate resources or tools. Where these are not the problem, carefully putting the right team together is a great skill to help achieve deadlines.
Achieveing set goals
While goals are more of personalized requirements, teams also need to have the synergy to win together. Again, putting the right team together is not commonplace. If we have a team of go-getters, we have a winning team made of individual winners who are able to play effectively together.
Where there is shared vision and shared values, a team culture is built based on achieving together.
When we meet deadlines, we achieve goal components which support the larger team based goals or vision. Deadlines can thus be said to be subset of more audacious or bigger goals.
Loyalty to a cause
Loyalty without the right skills is a mindless and uninformed risk. Such a talent is a ticking time bomb. However, being loyal to the cause of the organization must be earned in order to both follow and eventually lead by growing through the ranks. Loyalty is tested over time but the best test is to self and not necessarily to a specific person. It seems a bit egoistic to say that a person has earned the trust of another person. It is essential that each person proves loyalty to self and then to the common cause. This should earn us the toga of integrity and reliability.
Because one is loyal also does not mean that they do not have a mind of their own. They do not have to be yes-men who cannot stand against what they believe is not correct. They are not disloyal because they speak their minds. They are loyal when they express their misgivings about any situation. This makes them more trustworthy and reliable than those who follow the throng while reserving their misgivings on issues.
The real impact of emotional quotient is the delivery of interdependence. This is because one cannot be competent alone. One's competence must be adjudged through one's interpersonal relationships with others. As stated earlier, it is reiterated that nobody is or can be fruitful alone. The greatest players play in a team. Without this, it is impossible to build an enduring organization of agile minds.
Agility is a product of dynamics. Teams win better together because they are bound by common beliefs and principles. Each person accepts that the other person is a gift to them in the value space. This builds the mindset to use cooperation. To cut a long story short and not lose any great details, a competent person knows what to do and how to do it in order to get the job done when it is required to be done. That is a premium person: hungry, persistent, humble, accountable, takes responsibility, transparent, reliable, supportive, dependable, consistent, predictable, motivated and driven to win with others.
