Andre John Haddad
Industrial Psychologist

Why we need to revisit the competency concept:

(March 2005)

As a management consultant for the last 10 years, I have been concerned for some time by what I see as the ineffectiveness of company development and training programs. Too often, top management relies on management change programs without any idea what the end result might be. My experience has shown me that such programs generally fail to generate conviction or engagement or, sadly, even enhance the competency of managers. Too often, today’s managers have not reinvented themselves: they still rely on what they learned in school 10, 20, or more years earlier – light years in terms of our fast-changing business environment. We need to revisit the concept of competence and define a new model of competency for a manager.

Competency is generally understood as the application of knowledge and know-how to a particular field of endeavor. However, staying competent is another story altogether – it’s not so much related to learning, as we traditionally understand it, as it is linked to change.

It’s one thing to become an engineer, an investor or a surgeon; again, it’s another story altogether to keep a professional edge 10, 15, 20 years down the road! In contrast, reputation, a byproduct of achieving competency, is likely to outlive it and so create an illusion of competency. As a result, having maintained a high level of proficiency and succeeding year after year in a tough-as-nails world, it takes courage to admit when we start to lose it. To admit to falling behind, while still enjoying a good reputation, is not easy.