About incompetence in the corporate world

“What do you know to do?” vs. “What did you study (or what are your qualifications)?”. I always ask the first one during interviews, never the second. The second should be straightforward from one’s resume and yes, it mainly pertains to the acquired (theoretical) knowledge throughout the years. However, nothing beats the hands-on experience. Out there, facing daily challenges and working to overcome difficult situations regardless of job or role – this is how one hones valuable skills and gains practical knowledge. Allow me to share with you a story my grandfather used to tell me.

A fortified city was under siege for several days, not yielding under the aggressor’s relentless attacks. The days became weeks, weeks turned into months, and no one was gaining any visible advantage. To break the siege, the leaders of the invading army proposed a seemingly impossible task – for the besieged city to manufacture a rope made of sand. The city elders came up with a clever answer: “Give us a sample of rope, we will replicate it.”

This is an example of knowledge at work – originating from exposure to both practical and theoretical situations. I would definitively respect and listen to those city elders in all matters of state, considering they just saved a whole city from being ransacked. In the older days, elders had authority by virtue of age and experience.

Let’s transpose this to modern times. Ideally, one should blend and balance practical with theoretical knowledge, regardless of age, constantly learning, evolving, accumulating expertise. I would say age should not really matter if one is repeatedly proving his or her competence in achieving goals, completing tasks and creatively solving issues. Something I always considered throughout the years when selecting team members was experience over age. Of course, mindset, attitude, drive, energy, motivation, passion – all this matters when selecting and integrating newcomers into a collective, group and team.

In one of the companies I have worked for my team’s age average was under 30. Some of them just graduated from college, but surprisingly enough, due to the team members’ collective experience (and expertise) I had the confidence that they were able to handle many of the challenges coming their way. They shared the same passion for the innovative technology the company was creating and implementing. I kept telling them to use their knowledge as the root of their confidence and above all, the key factor for them to be respected by their peers, colleagues from other teams, by managers and executives and, last but not the least, by customers. By taking out the age factor, they empowered themselves through knowledge and continuous learning. They were humble and let the knowledge speak through their actions. They were getting things done. I trusted them to be at customers’ locations and solve all kinds of issues with no supervision whatsoever. (I was in the background in case they needed me). And they always accomplished their mission, further gaining confidence and solidifying their knowledge. Ultimately, the team members gained authority from knowledge, and they were listened to as experts in their domain.

I repeated this approach, years later. This time, the team’s age averaged between 35-40, with almost 50% of them being technical leads. This presented a different kind of team dynamic, as I had to encourage first knowledge sharing among everyone (regardless of seniority) and second to position themselves as experts when interacting with everyone outside the team. Thirdly, continuous learning and practice. It took some time, but we were able to achieve a higher degree of expertise, transposed into valuable knowledge for customers. The team was gradually being approached for complex projects and implementations, all members gaining that quiet authority from knowledge – they were engaged and listened to as experts. Customers coming straight to team members for technical advice was the ultimate sign of both professional respect and authority in their field.

Authority from knowledge comes from deep knowledge, quiet confidence and genuine humbleness. It is almost natural for anyone to listen and follow a person who is knowledgeable, humble, trustworthy, respectful, able to actively listen and offer support. In short, competent.

So, where is the incompetence at? Well, the opposite of authority from knowledge is the authority gained by being promoted to formal positions with no foundation. Namely, someone is promoted for all the wrong reasons regardless of their professional experience and expertise in a certain domain. This is damaging to one’s career, but above all, it is damaging to the culture within a company which encourages this practice. The larger the company, the easier it is to hide incompetent people between several layers of management. I understand it is virtually impossible to have competent people for all the roles; I would encourage to have competent people at least in all the major or key roles, especially the ones in positions of formal authority. Be mindful of whom you recruit, train, promote and empower. Evaluate everyone frequently, constantly, repeatedly.