Jerry (not his real name) is a manager I worked with way back when I was first a headhunter. After hearing my Levels of Competency theory (May 4) Jerry decided to try it, I think mainly to prove that it was BS, and became a convert. As his awareness (May 9) increased, he told me that the biggest problem he was having was prioritizing what to work on out of the dozens of level one (incompetence) things he had found, and asked me how to proceed.

Well, I nearly fell off my chair, since Jerry’s one of the most competent managers I’ve ever known—then, now and in-between. So, what was going on? Mainly that Jerry was becoming so conscious of everything he said/did and feeling that he could have said/done it better, therefore it must be a level one problem. Not true!

I doubt that there’s anybody who, in hindsight, doesn’t think of some way to improve whatever is being considered, but that has nothing to do with competency—competitions does not mean perfect.

I suggested that rather than prioritize his actions, he should prioritize the results that came from what he did/said, since it was the results that concerned him; after the results were prioritized he could trace the thread back to it’s source, i.e., what he said/did and decide what to do. Once Jerry wrapped his brain around that, he was good to go and took off like a rocket.

Now, for those of you reading who think that Jerry’s too good to be true, he’s not. If he has one trait that sets him apart it was his openness to believing that something needed to change and changing it. He never worried about moving anything to the fourth level, although I know for a fact that he did on many fronts. He always said that as long as he got out of level one and moved the most important things to level three, that he’d have plenty of time to put out the fires he had started on level two.

The greatest compliment I’ve ever received came in the one phone call I’ll never forget. It came a few years ago from Jerry’s wife and made me simultaneously the saddest and happiest I’ve ever been. She called to tell me that Jerry had passed away and to thank me for teaching him my four levels theory and how to do it. She said it changed him, not just at work, but within his family, helping him build wonderful relationships with his kids and preserving their relationship through nearly 40 years of marriage.

Praise doesn’t get any better than that!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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