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Many skills require practice to remain at a high level of competence. The four stages suggest that individuals are initially unaware of how little they know, or unconscious of their incompetence. As they recognize their incompetence, they consciously acquire a skill, then consciously use it.
- Unconsciously Incompetent. “I don’t know what I don’t know.” Before an individual undertakes an activity that is novel to him, he trudges through the state of unconscious incompetence.
- Consciously Incompetent. “I know what I don’t know.” The second stage of proficiency, the phase of conscious incompetence starts when you develop consciousness about the things you do not know.
- Consciously Competent. “I grow and know and it starts to show.” Slowly taking over the role of the facilitator, an individual lodged in the third stage begins the adventure towards utmost competency.
- Unconsciously Competent or Mastery. “I simply go because of what I know.” As you build experience and expertise, you reach the stage of unconscious competence – wherein you do not have to think about the activity you are very good in.
- Overview
- What is competence?
- Four stages of competence with examples
- How to move successfully through the four stages of competence
Video: Hard and Soft Skills for ResumesLearn more about what hard skills and soft skills to put on a resume so yours stands out from the others!
Becoming competent at a skill allows you to perform it with ease, boosting your productivity and increasing your performance in the workplace. Improving your levels of competency also gives you the ability to impart that knowledge to others, improving the competency of the workforce. Understanding the four stages of competency allows you to effectively employ strategies to move rapidly from one stage to the next. In this article, we explore the four stages of learning in-depth and give strategies you can use to improve your own competency or that of your team.
Competence refers to the skills and characteristics that enable you to perform a job. If someone can perform a required task at a targeted level of proficiency, they are competent. To be competent, you must be able to react to a situation and follow behaviors you have found to succeed in the past. To do this, you must have a repertoire of possible ...
1. Unconscious incompetence
This is the stage where you don’t yet know the degree of your incompetence. In other words, you don’t know what you don’t know. This stage is generally the most challenging, as you are unconscious of the fact that there are areas that need improvement or things you need to learn. People in this stage can’t recognize problems as they occur, so they generally don’t ask for help.An example of this is if you ask a member of your team to create a series of articles for a client and optimize them to rank well in Google. The team member thinks that they’re performing the task correctly and doesn’t know to ask for guidance. It isn’t until you see the result that you realize they received improper training and that the articles will have to be rewritten.
2. Conscious incompetence
This is where you start to develop an awareness of what you don’t know. This stage can be uncomfortable because you must acknowledge your shortcomings. However, recognizing your shortcomings also motivates you to move forward and learn the skill so you can move beyond this stage as quickly as possible.Continuing with the example from stage one, after reviewing the assignment with the member of your team and showing examples of what the article should have looked like, the team member moves into the consciously incompetent stage. They are aware that they haven’t learned the strategies to optimize an article for search engines, but because they are conscious of the mistakes, they now undertake measures to learn the skills.
3. Conscious competence
After dedicating yourself to the improvement of a skill through formal training, repeated practice and participation, competence grows and starts to show. At this stage, you have learned and practiced enough to perform a task with a degree of quality and independence. The task does take focus and attention that makes you slower than it would for someone more skilled. There is also a performance risk from distractions and possibly deadline pressure. In other words, if you lose your focus, your ability to perform the task may suffer. In this stage, your team member has developed the skills to write the articles and optimize them for Google search results. However, they are still relying on a checklist to ensure they don’t miss anything, and they have to remain focused to be most successful at the task.
1. Unconscious incompetence strategies
Because this can be the most challenging stage to get out of, it takes a conscious effort to get out of it. The best solution for advancing beyond this stage is to practice awareness. Constant awareness, over time, will help move you through the stages. When you are performing a new task, ask for feedback throughout the process. If it’s possible to see great examples of similar, completed work, ask to see them. The key is to move rapidly from unconscious to conscious incompetence because once you have reached conscious incompetence, you can obtain the training you need to learn the skill.A personal SWOT analysis, evaluating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can help. It organizes them into a list and typically presents them in a simple two-by-two grid. A SWOT analysis helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses to understand which strengths you need to learn and improve upon. Make sure that your skills align with your personal or work goals. If you’re a leader who’s coaching others, be sensitive at this early stage. Your team members may not understand how much they must learn or how unskilled they are. Give plenty of positive feedback to keep motivation high.Related: SWOT Analysis Guide (With Examples)
2. Conscious incompetence strategies
In this stage, you become aware of what you don’t know, so the solution is to acquire knowledge to move as quickly as possible to the conscious competence stage. Meet with a coworker who can teach you the skill, take online or in-person training, read books, listen to podcasts or attend seminars. If you are in a leadership role and you need to improve high-level leadership skills, you may want to consider hiring a coach who can help you obtain those skills more rapidly.If you are a leader who’s coaching a team member, provide lots of encouragement and support to combat negative thinking, improve confidence and refocus energy.
3. Conscious competence strategies
Because in this stage, you are competent in a task or ability, the key to moving beyond this stage is deliberate practice, ideally with someone who has mastered the skill and can provide guidance.If you’re coaching others, help keep your team members focused on the skills they need to learn and give them opportunities to practice those skills.Related: How to Develop Your Skill Set to Advance Your Career
May 6, 2024 · In this article we look at the four stages of competence and how to use the conscious competence model to support your own learning and that of others. Furthermore, we end with 7 ‘conscious’ steps you can take to improve your competence, and that of your team.
- Unconscious Incompetence (Ignorance) How hard can it be? It’ll be fine. The first of the four stages of competence is a state of unconscious incompetence.
- Conscious Incompetence (Awareness) Crikey, I have no idea what I’m doing. I better get learning. At the stage of conscious incompetence, we become aware of our ignorance.
- Conscious Competence (Learning) Wow, I actually know what I’m doing. Conscious competence is the third of the Four Stages of Competence. We’ve finally learned something new.
- Unconscious Competence (Mastery) I don’t know, I just do it. The final stage of our competence hierarchy is the psychological state of unconscious competence.
Cognitive Competency. Intrapersonal Competency. Interpersonal Competency. These competencies are composed of multiple, interdependent clusters of competencies. Competencies coalesce to form clusters of competencies that people access when confronted with particular rhetorical situations:
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However, as your skills increase, you may advance to conscious competence, meaning that you know you are communicating well in the moment, which will add to your bank of experiences to draw from in future interactions.
