My favorite question to ask somebody that I’m working with is this;
Though on face value, it’s a pretty simple question, the responses that I get are far from simple.
People think, stammer, stutter, throw out a few lines about being great at communication, stakeholder engagement or strategy and finally admit that they are not really sure what to say. Others wander all over the place, not really sure where they are going and hoping that the outcome might eventually materialize.
Can we clear something up please?
“You are not a competency list”.
There, I said it and it feels much better.
Why do we gravitate to competencies to describe ourselves to a prospective employer? Why do we try to wrap up all the amazing, unique, idiosyncratic and compelling things about ourselves into a neat little list as defined by the last corporation that I worked for? Why do we minimise the things that truly are amazing about ourselves into a set of bullet points loosely described as my strengths, skills or attributes?
We do so because of a few reasons.
Let’s deal with each of these.
People don’t hire competencies, they hire human beings. They are more interested in HOW you do things then WHAT you do. A competency is a WHAT, but they way that you go about demonstrating these competencies are where your real gifts reside. You might be a good communicator, but your true gift is in your ability to be able to make technical things easy for people to understand or to clarify the problem in amongst all of the communication that swirls around the issue.
Maybe you are a good stakeholder manager, but you true gift is in your ability to build relationships that allow for the difficult and sometimes challenging conversations to occur with trust and openness.
You have been taught to speak about yourselves in WHAT terms, because it feels like the alternative is maybe boastful, arrogant or even just too complex to describe. We believe that if I mention the WHAT, that people will understand what we are talking about and put us on the same page.
Maybe we suffer from a bit of Imposter syndrome and believe that competencies are safe and less fearful to discuss.
Whatever your reason, you need to get below the line and think of yourself in ways that are interesting and compelling. At the very least, a personal definition of the competency would be a good start. What do I mean when I say teamwork, leadership, strategy, people manager or communicator?
Challenge yourself to find your gifts. They are your competitive advantage and your point of difference. When someone asks you to tell them about yourself, help them understand exactly how amazing you are and do it with confidence and a little bit of colour.
Layne – Workshop Facilitator
YellowBox Careers
(Bridge image: Elijah Macleod)
