Core Competencies Part II

Let’s say that you have figured out what your primary core competency is from the list of 31. That is to say the one that you start with, the one that is innately wired to your person and the lens that you tend to use to drive change in your life.  It’s really valuable to get a handle on that, but then you realize that you have thirty or so other competencies that you’re not using at full capacity.  There are key steps to getting these under your belt, and the first step is to begin memorization of the competencies.  This probably seems tedious, but the reality is that there are very few people out there who can’t memorize given the right technique.  I’m not going to tell you how to create a memory palace, but check out Ron White’s intro material [I’ve been through his 30 day course on CD].  With a memory palace you can store information, in sequence, and recall it with relative ease. I’ve used it to memorize The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

Upon memorizing the core competencies you can begin understanding their use in your day to day interactions with both business, your direct reports, and for personal development.  It is worth noting that this can take a lifetime.  If you spent a month focusing on each one you’d still take nearly 3 years at which point in time you might need to circle back around and start over because you’d probably have learned enough in the first pass that you’d want to take a second pass and learn more.  It is worth noting that competencies that you don’t have under your belt very well may require some time of meditation and pondering to understand their value to you.  It may be simple to understand the value of these various competencies, but you want to grasp their personal implications.

After understanding the competencies you’ll want to review the competencies daily.  If memorization is not on your current priority list take some time to write them down on a 3X5 notecard to look at during down times or before your day starts.  By having them fresh in your mind your neurological framework will literally have an increased likelihood of applying them rather than just hoping you remember them and hoping that you might apply them.  Take time to take the information into your conscious thoughts.

After your day make sure you have some time for reflection.  This can be great for all sorts of problem solving and stress reduction, but also as a measure to consider how you used the core competencies, how you might not have used the core competencies, and how you plan to use them tomorrow.

What competencies seem the least like you today?

Pencils image Creative Commons: Cleidi Isabel.