What's in your Toolkit?

Now the biggie "competence". So you didn't get into Harvard, out of state fees for Miami were out of reach, so you settled for a small state university in Texas that wasn't too far from home. Well that's; ok. But can you compete? Was the quality of that experience good enough to provide you with the opportunity to compete with the rest of the world? I hope so.

When I talk about competence, it's not about what school you attended if any. It's not about how many degrees's you have, if any. It's not even about how smart you are. It's more about what you have put in your tool kit to allow you to compete for the type of job you are interested in. You know, all "smart" people don't have great high paying jobs. And all people in great high paying jobs are not necessarily "smart". Don't you wonder how some of these Bozo's got these gigs? Once again this is about being competent in what you do. If your job requires certain specialized skills, then obviously you need to have those skills and have a high degree of competence in those areas in order to be successful. There are a few competencies that in many cases are a given that most people need to have. One of those that I will touch on a little later in this section is communication.

Many companies evaluate talent based on a group of core competences and individual job competencies. The core competencies are those that the company feels that all employees should possess. The individual job competencies are those that are unique to the job. In some instances, you may have functional or departmental competencies; this all depends on your organization and management. What you must remember however is that you must be competent in your area of expertise in order to be successful. If you fall off or fall short in one of these areas, you must get some help. Many of these things are quite subjective, however, companies and managers view them as important. Some examples of competencies that companies view as important are things like:

Action orientation, Ethics/values, Functional Skills, Communications, Active Listening, Planning, Valuing Diversity, Setting Priorities, Developing People, Political Savvy, and the list goes on and on and on. The challenge for you as a candidate is to understand what you are good at and understand how you can become even better in those competencies that are important to your organization or your management. An accountant who doesn't know accounting doesn't make a good accountant - that's pretty obvious.

There is something to be said about self-improvement. If you go into an interview and someone asks you about your weakness and you answer the question and a year later you get the same question and the answer is the same, then what does that say about you? Does it say that you have wasted a year waiting on someone else to help you improve in an area that you know you are weak in? What's up with that? When do you take responsibility for your own development? Too many times I have heard employees talk about the fact that they were not allowed to go to training. Well I can send you to all the training you want but if you come back and continue to do the same thing, then it's a waste of time and money. Therefore, don't use the training excuse unless you take the responsibility to change the behavior once you are back on the job. Most people don't. In other words, building competence in an area may involve training but it also involves on the job activities, to bring the training to life. From an individual standpoint the one competency that I believe no one should neglect is that of communications, more specifically business communication. When I speak of business communication I speak of verbal, and written. In today's world of e-mail and text messaging, people must be careful to not think that the language they use with their friends is also appropriate in the workplace. Please don't send me an e-mail that reads:

"DIS nOt iz 2 inform U dat d reports U requestD wiL b redE by d nd of d wk. Thx."

Please make sure that your message reads: "This note is to inform you that the reports you requested will be ready by the end of the week. Thanks."

Keep in mind that the work that you do will require communication. This is a competency that you truly need to continue to work on. I encourage people to check themselves. Check the tone of your e-mail; check the tone of your voice when speaking with clients, co-workers, staff etc. Be aware of how well you listen because this in turn affects how you respond.

My suggestion to you is to gain an understanding of what it is that you do well. Identify those things that are important in the line of work that you do or would like to do. If those things are aligned, then play to the strengths and sell yourself on those strengths. In the event that there are areas that you need to work on, then make a commitment to yourself and build a plan to work on those things. Work at developing yourself as it relates to these competencies. Do not wait on someone else to develop you.