This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rog42: Blog’d: The Curse of Competence http://bit.ly/8wTE5H...

Firstly thanks for inspiring me to blog the post. (me suffering from point 1 ) and providing the impetus, the commitment to deliver, no matter what happened during the day.

Secondly, you have a great insight there. Continuing the thought – “Who I am” expressed as “what I do” is really important in influence – whether you’re a manager, teacher, salesman, consultant, parent. Watching a show like Hustle (great series btw) highlights just how unconsciously we associate role with competency. Scam artists like Frank Abignail and Walter Mitty demonstrated this as an art form.

A second thought is that changing behaviour (competency) can lead to changing values (identity). I’ll put some more thought around that for another post.

I’m looking forward to working with you as I develop the series for High Tech Achievers.

Cheers
Rog42

It was excellent to discuss this topic with you yesterday at NSCM, and you’ve done a brilliant – highly competent job – of capturing your key ideas.

I’ve often felt that we live in a kind of meritocracy – where by a continual process of unnatural selection, of ‘compare, rank and reward’, that starts pre-kindergarten, we are sorted into our place in the societal food-chain.

Whether delivered by nature or nurture, those gifts – those competencies that shine – are quickly seized upon and become installed as part of our operating system – our identity. So who I am becomes what I do – or in our society – what I do well.

And, as you point out, this comes at a price. Sure, the society, company, club, church or family benefit because we get the so called ‘best person for the job’ without too much effort. But the dark side of this is a gravitational force that makes it NOT OK to not be instantly good at something. And for this we pay the price.

Just wanted to add some thoughts to the conversation.

Well done, Roger.

Best to you, Robin