There are several definitions to the term “conscientious competency”. We prefer the definition: “knowing what to do and why to do it”. Conscientious competency is the highest step on the learning ladder. Which learning ladder? The one that drives every people-decision in our professional lives whether HR generalist, recruiter, manager, or consultant.

The particular learning ladder outlined in this series of newsletters affects our ability to make good hiring and promotion decisions…decisions that can cost big dollars and cause big problems when done poorly…or when done well can make working a pleasure.

At the bottom of the people-decision ladder we have “not knowing what to do and not knowing we don’t know” or “unconscious incompetence”. This is a very dangerous place to be because it encourages bad decisions based on ignorance. It is the root of the adage, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Some examples of unconscious incompetence include promoting people solely on the basis of past performance or hiring applicants because we like them. Everyone thinks they are “expert” at the unconscious incompetence level.

There are two ways to move up the competency ladder: 1) feedback that helps us become aware of our specific area of incompetence; and 2) observing and imitating a competent person’s behaviors. We get feedback about hiring and promotional decisions when we take time to follow up on our decisions; carefully evaluating what we measured pre-hire or pre-promotion against what we observed post-hire. Imitation, on the other hand means we imitate a successful person’s behavior (monkey-see-monkey-do) but don’t really understand why.

You might have noticed that both intermediate steps mentioned above are only “half-way houses” on the road to conscious competency. Moving to CC level requires education and the AHA! experience. This is the place we all want to be. The place where we know everything we need to know about hiring and promotion, where to find help and when to look for it.