In this chapter we explain what competencies are and what competency management entails. If you know what your current competencies are, and you also know which competencies you need for your training and profession in later life, you can establish which competencies you still want or need to acquire. Using a personal development plan (PDP), you can systematically work on competencies that are important to you. This chapter also informs you how you can test whether you have already acquired certain competencies. With the software program accompanying this book you can easily keep a record of the progress of your own competency management.
1.1 Competencies for your profession
What exactly is a competency? The term can be defined as follows:
A competency is a combination of knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour needed for proper functioning in a given professional situation.
Knowledge is what you know: for example, the theoretical part in your study books.
Skills are the things you can do: the practical application of knowledge, putting things into practice.
Attitude is about what you really want: your personal motives and preferences, that which motivates you, and which you find worth the effort.
Behaviour is your way of doing things: for example, how an advisor goes about his professional work. But it also concerns the behavioural result: the end results and products you provide. Of course, the latter is extremely important: to function well means producing results. Behaviour is also about how you are perceived by others.
By competencies we mean the simultaneous combination of all these aspects. They represent a combination of knowing, ability, wanting and doing.
In brief, a competency is a professional aptitude. Thus, a nurse must be able to inoculate a crying child. Without this competency he cannot function: he will be incompetent, that is, unsuitable and incompetent as a nurse.
During your training you will have to engage in competency management. What does that entail?
Competency management is the systematic development of your personal competencies.
Someone engaged in competency management continually and systematically researches which aspects he is sufficiently competent in, and which competencies he must develop further. He not only constantly pays attention to what the profession demands of him, but also (and more importantly) how he can exploit his unique talents to the utmost. Nowadays, everybody, including you, should engage in competency management. This is because after you have completed your education you will want to have a job you like and in which you excel. You will want a job that is suitable for you. This means that throughout the course of your education you will have to work on your competencies.
In the past, this was not deemed necessary. Training was primarily focused on theoretical knowledge. Nowadays, however, companies and educational institutes are focused on competencies, so on much more than mere knowledge. This is why the modern higher education student works on integrated case studies and practical experience projects. As such, you are expected to work systematically on the development of your competencies for the full duration of your education.
Competency management is more than just passing exams. To fully and systematically develop competencies you must constantly monitor your knowledge, attitude and behaviour. Besides that, you must constantly reflect on what you know, what you can do, what you want, and what you are doing.
You can identify your inherent personality traits by answering the following questions:
- Who am I?
- What can I do already?
- Where will I fit in?
- What do I want to become?
- What do I still have to do?
These questions will be covered in more detail in the following sections. First of all, we would like to go further into the matter of competency at the hand of an example. As we stated before, a competency is a combination of knowledge, attitude, skills and behaviour needed for proper functioning in a given professional situation. A doctor, for example, must be able to persuade an overwrought and headstrong patient to rest fully and take the proper medicines. But how can he manage that? Which combination of knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour does the doctor need to help a patient like this?
The doctor needs the following to help this patient:
- Knowledge. The doctor must know that certain symptoms (stress, increased heart rate, sleeplessness) point to being overwrought. He also needs to know which medicines and prescriptions are effective. He also needs to keep up with the professional literature, so that he knows about the latest medicines, therapies and so on.
- Skills. The doctor must be able to handle a stethoscope, for example. But he must also have communication skills:
- – He must be able to listen well and to ask pertinent questions (otherwise he cannot discover all the symptoms).
- – He must present bad news in a reassuring way: not too reassuring (because that is misleading), but not too forceful either (for that could induce panic in the patient).
- – He must be able to explain things clearly and give reasons (otherwise the headstrong patient will not believe him and consequently will not take his medicine or rest).
- Attitude. Every profession has its own standards and values. In this case, a caring attitude is called for. A doctor who does not think a caring attitude is important (because it is not a part of his standards and values) will not pay proper attention to his headstrong patient. Patience is also needed: a doctor must not only be able to listen (see skills) but he must also want to listen.
- Behaviour. In order to convince the patient the doctor must demonstrate professional behaviour and must also radiate calm and conviction. But he must also show his knowledge, skills and behaviour in a concrete way in order to gain a positive result.
A doctor will hopefully engage in competency management during his studies. He will constantly investigate whether he possesses enough knowledge, whether his skills are properly developed, whether his attitude (motivation, disposition, values) fits his future profession. He will also reflect on his behaviour: is my way of acting correct: am I getting enough results? This investigation is always very personal: no student has exactly the same level of knowledge, skills and attitude as his fellow students. Thus, student X may possess a lot of medical knowledge, but relatively fewer communication skills, whilst student Y possesses plenty of communication skills but relatively less medical knowledge. Student X may also be very patient, whilst Y is more impatient but also more dynamic. This means that X will have to manage his competencies differently from Y.
Description of a competency
A competency consists of:
- A result that has to be reached or the product which must be delivered
- A description of the quality of the result or product
- A professional situation in which the competency must be applied
Applying this to the competency of our doctor, the doctor must be able to persuade a completely overwrought and headstrong patient (professional situation) to rest fully and take the proper (quality) medicines (result).
The following are also examples of competencies:
- In bad weather (situation) a pilot must be able to land a plane (result) safely (quality).
- After a series of lectures (situation), a maths teacher, in using a chapter in a book, must be able to write a representative (quality) exam for a student (product).
- In building a house (situation), a bricklayer must be able to erect a wall (task) that will not fall down even under the most extreme weather conditions (quality).
1.2 Competency management: how does it work?
How should you tackle your competency management? We will now deal with the five questions to which you have to find your own answers. All those questions deal with a particular aspect of the competency and to the relationship between that competency and the future profession.
To answer the question ‘Who am I?’ requires that you investigate your attitude, your personality traits and your talents. ‘Attitude’ is the complex of values, standards, opinions, motives, convictions, wishes and feelings. ‘Motivation’ is a part of your attitude. Attitude is crucial to a competency, because an unmotivated person will in general perform poorly. Therefore a doctor who does not want to be helpful or who does not want to listen will most likely not be a very good doctor, even if he possesses the necessary medical knowledge and skills.
Attitude Personality traits
Of course, your innate skills and personality traits also determine who you are. And your competencies are strongly influenced by your talents. That is why you have to reflect deeply on the question of whether you possess the necessary talents and qualities for a particular profession. But the question ‘Who am I?’ revolves mainly around what you actually do with those talents and qualities, because without motivation and the proper attitude, talents are completely useless. Of course, the talent of soccer player Ruud van Nistelrooy is innate, but his attitude is important too: he always wants to score goals, which is a good attitude for a forward. Without that attitude he would score fewer goals, despite his talent. Furthermore, he would train less intensively. Football manager Alex Ferguson obviously possesses talent befitting a coach, but his attitude is important too: his standards, values and motives centre on the view that ‘everyone must strive to get the most out of himself’. Not a bad attitude for a coach!
The question ‘Who am I?’ therefore relates to talents but mainly attitude and motivational traits. You can discover who you are by doing the assignments, sometimes helped by people in your environment, such as friends, relatives or fellow students. Of course, a lot will be familiar to you already, but other things may be new to you. In any case, it is useful to investigate to what extent your attitude and per...
