How long should it take me to achieve professional significance?
At what time in my professional journey should I admit, “I am successful”?
Can I think about my professional journey as climbing a mountain?
Looking at the top of the mountain thinking “this is tough to climb”. Anyway, this article will help you prepare.
The confidence to climb from surviving to significance as a professional is born from competence. Competent people do not wait for their excellence to be rewarded, they know that excellence is a minimum standard.
There is a framework that distinguishes a surviving professional from a thriving one. When you understand the difference, you will begin to take action towards the mountain top. This journey also ensures you unlock your potential for self-actualization.
According to research, the Wealth research group reported that 98% of people die without ever achieving their dreams. What does it take to be in the top 2%?
Competence drives confidence.
Confidence drives courage.
Courage drives risk.
Risk disrupts, and creates new horizons and opportunities for others to thrive just by one individual who decides to pursue significance.
Back to the metaphor of climbing your mountain. In your professional journey, there is the risk of climbing to the top in the form of critical decisions. However, lubricants in the form of competence can ease the friction. To help you navigate the professional journey from survival to significance, take a lesson on the four levels of competence.
Level 1: Unconscious Incompetence
What is Unconscious Incompetence? It describes a mentally blind professional who does not know how to do a task but also fails to acknowledge the skills gap and deficits. It is even worse when the unconscious incompetent individual is a positional leader. A leader by portfolio but intellectually arrogant. In most cases, unconscious incompetent people do not play by the standards that govern the profession. If you are a young professional in a field, seek out the professional standards that define all the competencies in the profession. Failure to do this will accumulate tears of experience not years of experience. A very good example is in the education sector where teaching as a job is undermined. An unconscious incompetent teacher thinks that because of “my academic qualification, I do not need any teacher certification to teach”. Unfortunately, what you do not know, you do not know. Any years of experience while operating as an unconscious incompetent can never qualify you as an expert.
Level 2: Conscious Incompetence
What is Conscious Incompetence? It describes a reflective professional who identifies his or her skills deficit and does not shy away from it. Individuals in this space recognize the value of seeking new skills. They undressed the intellectual arrogance outfit of the unconscious incompetent people and wore the intellectual humbling attires. These are people in the workplace who seek mentors, coaches, training, workshops, and learning opportunities.
Level 3: Conscious Competence
What is Conscious Competence? It describes Pre-Mastery professionals who have vast knowledge of professional standards of their profession. They have academic and professional qualifications. They are systematic, and follow the step-by-step processes and procedures in executing job functions. Most of the time, conscious competent professionals avoid professional mistakes.
Level 4: Unconscious Competence
What is Unconscious Competence? It describes the top 2% in every profession who attain significance. They are the trailblazer who re-write the standards by their practice. They set new professional standards having disrupted the existing systems. They are often referred to as “Distinguished”. They are organizational outliers and intrapreneurs.
TIME HORIZON
How long does it take to earn a distinguished status as a professional?
It might vary from person to person but what is known is that unconscious competent professionals exhibit what Malcolm Gladwell identifies as “Deliberate Practice”.
A practice where actions are driven by an intention to raise standards. And in 10 years of practice, they turned out to be geniuses.
Call to Action
I wrote a book, “The Pathways of Highly Successful Global Teachers” which explored 20 different countries’ contexts on how to move from survival to significance. The book is available for purchase. You can reach out on Whatsapp at +2348039147549
