Confidence is not Competence
Confidence is a positive characteristic. In organizational life, it fosters a sense of trust in others, allows you to try new methods and tasks and generally leads to a level of approachability that invites communication from others.
Generally speaking, the more successful you are in your particular role, the more confident that you become and this in turn enables you to take on new assignments, experiment and take appropriate risks—all the behaviors you need to get recognized and rewarded with a new role or position.
The challenge for many professionals is that the very successes that led to advancement also cloud their thinking. They become overconfident--confusing their confidence with their level of competence.
Typically competence arrives on the scene first; it is simply the outcome of learning and the recognition gained from the learning. After a period of time in a new role, professionals sometimes dangerously assume they have the same level of competence as they did in the former roles that they had mastered. They may believe that they have learned a lot in the new role, are managing situations well and are getting appropriate recognition and positive feedback from others. And indeed this may all be true. The challenge is that professionals new to a role often don’t know what they don’t know. This blind spot can lead to a dangerous attitude that will potentially compromise one’s career potential.
It is important to understand that success in all roles means achieving several levels of learning. Very likely, if you’ve been successful in a position for a year, you’ve mastered one level of learning. Congratulations! The goal now is to feel confident about your achievements and to recognize that there are more nuanced learning levels to conquer. Mastery or expertise is rarely achieved in a year.
A quick way to keep your thinking clear and to help you to gauge your own level of competency is to consider that every role has levels of knowledge and skill associated with them.
- “Working knowledge” or basic competence means that you can and have used tools, processes, concepts and methods and can apply them effectively to routine situations.
- Advanced competence suggests that you not only have used the tools but understand concepts and best practices associated with the tools, processes, concepts and methods and have experience applying them to a breadth of routine and non-routine situations.
- Mastery suggests an expert level of competence. This means that you have a breadth and/or depth of knowledge that you have applied to a variety of routine and non-routine situations and multiple environments. Mastery is also associated with creativity or novel applications of tools/concepts/practices in a field. Ironically “masters” typically say they have “so much more to learn” because they are acutely aware of the breadth, depth and nuanced complexity of their fields.
Ultimately staying in touch with the “reality” of your learning level saves you from teetering into “know it all” or “arrogance” territory. Asking for feedback from your leader and experts, reading literature in your field and remaining curious are simple ways to stay centered. With your confidence level high and your competency level in check, you are on a path to success in any role.