10.30.06

Becoming excellent

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:47 am by Administrator

If you want to become great at something, you can’t skip steps, as your mother might have told you. Here’s the ladder of excellence in five levels, made popular by the late psychologist Thomas Gordon, about three decades ago. (Source: Fortune, Oct. 30, 2006).
1. Unconscious incompentence: You think you know, but you have no idea that you’re ignorant of your own ignorance.
2. Conscious incompetence: Now you’re aware of what you don’t know and start to do something about it. It’s like starting to learn the basics of a new language.
3. Conscious competence: You can accomplish a task but only with great mental effort. You can make small talk in Spanish but you’re constantly thinking about what you’re saying but you’re speech is less than perfect.
4. Unconscious excellence: You’re no longer thinking, you’re doing. You can carry on a conversation in Spanish fluently without thinking about the rules of grammar.
5. Conscious exellence: The highest echelon. Here you use your conscious mind to break down and adjust the elements of your performance. You can explain to other people what you are doing.
Finally, beware of overconscious incompentence. That means your awareness of your Achilles heel becomes debilitating. Some examples from the sports world are Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal shooting free throws or Yankee second baseman Chuck Knoblauch trying to throw to first base. Visualize positive outcomes. Let your mind be your ally.

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