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Embrace Your Incompetence (on the Path to Learning)
Embracing Your Incompetence
Ann V. Deaton, Ph.D., PCC
In May of 2006, I found myself teaching an MBA class in Transformational Leadership and asking the students a question: “How often should a leader be incompetent?” These confident adult learners answered in many different words, yet all had the same theme: Leaders should always be competent. They should be incompetent 0% of the time, and strive to overcome any areas in which they are not competent. I found myself in a quandary. What if leaders always stayed in the areas of their competence? How would they grow? What would they miss?
As these graduate students’ responses suggested, our society and our leaders love competence, and resist incompetence. Competence is what we strive for in our work; it’s what we write about. A keyword search of the books on the Barnes & Noble web site at the time underscored the same bias. In entering the search term “competence”, a total of 1002 references came up, including duplicates of the same work in different formats. Searching for all the books on “incompetence”, my search yielded…36 hits. I had to wonder: Why are we so uninterested in incompetence? Or, perhaps more accurately, why are we afraid?
Embracing Incompetence
Aaah, the joys of incompetence! How often do you say this to yourself? Never? Apparently you are playing it safe in life, and leaving many of your talents untapped. That’s my view, anyway, and when I look at successful leaders, this perspective appears well supported. Leaders do not always choose the safe options, the areas where they are already skilled. Often, they recognize that to truly succeed, they must take risks; they must be open to the discomfort of not knowing. Great leaders choose the path less taken, forging a road of innovation and change where their leadership has the opportunity to grow to another level.
Incompetence is merely a stage in the learning process. This process begins with Unconscious Incompetence(I don’t know what I don’t know), followed by Conscious Incompetence (I know what I don’t know) and then Conscious Competence (I know what I know but I have to think about it to execute) and finally Unconscious Competence (I do what I know well without consciously thinking about it).
Change is a constant in all businesses, as well as in society as a whole. Whenever we deal with something new, we have to face the fact that we are incompetent, or more accurately, not yet competent in this new set of circumstances. That is an unsettling feeling. Many of us have an established track record for competence, and even excellence, in our professions. It can be a blow to recognize suddenly that we lack the needed skills for this new challenge. Understanding that incompetence is merely a stage in the learning process can be a relief, creating a sense of optimism about the temporariness of this uncomfortable sensation and the success to follow. Having the opportunity to embrace moments when we’ve felt completely unskilled, and yes, incompetent, is a good thing because it also means we are aware. And as we know, with awareness comes the capacity for change.
As I’ve moved through life, I have come to believe that choosing competence over challenge is a dangerous place to be. When I feel I must be competent, I tend to stay in safe, comfortable, familiar territory. In such a domain, I can guarantee my competence, and I also guarantee that I will not become greater than what I am right now. I think the same is true for our leaders–needing to be competent at all times may ultimately mean they are less than who they might be. Can we accept this, or do we need to encourage them to risk not knowing on the way to becoming competent.
Most of the clients I work with are leaders. They are accustomed to being effective at what they do. During times of change, the best of these leaders notices that the ground underneath them is shifting. Some choose to maintain a rigid stance, holding onto their areas of competence, choosing to do the same things in the same ways, and, eventually losing their balance and falling/failing. Others choose to do the unfamiliar–acknowledge they do not know what to do, ask for help, and rejoice in the not knowing. Shunryo Suzuki-Roshi said “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” A leader who accepts that right here and right now he or she is no longer the expert but incompetent opens the path to learning.
Incompetence as a Route to Excellence
When I focus on 100% competence, I leave a lot on the table. For me, incompetence has come to be not a pejorative label but a state in which I can embrace the moment fully. I’ve found that when I notice my own incompetence, it is because I’m stretching, growing, and learning. Only through allowing for islands of incompetence can I be fully who I am. Making a promise to become who I need to be is key. As Levis Madore described when talking about the role of promises for leaders, “promises can actually be an occasion to step up to something bigger than who we are and hold the very process of fulfilling the promise as a developmental opportunity to bring out the best in ourselves.” That said, I’m embracing my own incompetence, not to keep it but rather to learn from it and, ultimately, let it go. That is, until the next time I am incompetent and growing again.
Reference:
Madore, L. Promises and requests leaders make. Downloaded May 1, 2007 from http://coaching.gc.ca/documents/promises_and_requests_leaders_make_e.asp
© 2008 DaVinci Resources
Contact Information: Ann V. Deaton, Ph.D., PCC, DaVinci Resources, 804-270-6902, Ann@DaVinciResources.com
About the Author
Ann V. Deaton, Ph.D., PCC is a leadership coach with DaVinci Resources. She is certified in coaching for personal and professional mastery by the Newfield Network, as well as holding a PCC (Professional Certified Coach) credential from the International Coach Federation. Ann received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin. She also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Ann provides leadership coaching and team development to individuals and organizational teams to enhance their self awareness, communication, decision-making, and overall effectiveness. She is credentialed in the use of Appreciative Inquiry, The Leadership Circle 360, The Leadership Culture Survey, and the Conflict Dynamics Profile. Ann serves as a leadership coach in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business, the Virginia Health Care Foundation’s Leading for the Long Term, and in the Emerging Nonprofit Leaders program. She also teaches coaching courses for The University of Texas at Dallas Executive Coaching Program. Ann served as President of the Richmond Area Coaches Association in 2006 and 2007, and is a member of the national Coaching and Philanthropy task force.
Contact information:
Ann V. Deaton, Ph.D., PCC
DaVinci Resources
4724 Snowmass Rd.
Glen Allen, VA 23060
804-270-6902
Ann@DaVinciResources.com
www.DaVinciResources.com
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