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The Curiosity Of Competency

29 September 2013

Can you do everything to the same standard? Are you equally competent at all the tasks work asks of you?

My answers (when thinking about me) are: no and no.

We all have skills and talents that we excel at and also tend to have a few blind spots or weaker areas.

However, when we are about to start a new task, or about to delegate one, how often do we stop and spend a moment thinking about competency?

In the great rush through working life it’s too easy to fire off tasks at people or ‘get stuck in’ without stopping to think about the consequences of doing so.

If we don’t play to strengths we could be wasting time and effort as the task becomes a burden. If we delegate to people who can’t do the work then we make their life difficult and increase their stress levels.

This leads me to the curiosity of competency – that something so important is rarely talked about and that people ‘just get on with it’ and muddle through.

It takes a moment to pause and consider who is the best person to do the work and if we are setting ourselves up for success or failure.

So, this week be curious about competency and match tasks to people to ability.

Next week: Finding the bottleneck.