Competence and Capacity Development

Do you want to stand out in your workplace or ace that interview you are preparing for? Have you ever wondered what makes some people sort after than others?  What will build your relevance and confidence? Here you have it, competence and capacity.

Competence can affect your entire well being, ranging from your personality, to the ability to land an appointment or job, retaining your position and relevance, obtaining a raise and promotion. Competence makes you relevant, interesting and bold. It is very important to understand what we are talking about today, Competence and Capacity Development.

Competence and capacity development has to do with expanding your current ability and building your suitability for a particular purpose or task to the extent that you can perform it more efficiently. It involves developing the required ability, skill or knowledge required for the excellent performance of a task. Now an important question to ask yourself is, “Do I have what is required for excellent performance?

Competence can be developed in any area of relevance in your life or organization. It can be job competence which will make you successful in your career. You can focus on relationship competence with the aim to improve how you connect well with people. Communication competence is also important to speak and write appropriately and effectively. There are several of them like organizational competence, leadership and managerial competence, learning or change competence, Customer relations competence, personal or behavioural competence and so on.

You cannot afford to remain at a particular spot of knowledge in this age of hyper innovations and inventions. To stay relevant you have to be committed to the development of these two important factors that guarantees maximum value – competence and capacity.

Let me give you some examples of competence and capacity development in the bible. Imagine the kind of persons who gathered to David for him to be their leader, 1 Sam 22:2 says, everyone including about 400men who was in trouble, in debt, or bitter about life came to David, and he became their commander. Would you want to lead a bunch of persons like this? But in 2 Sam 23:8 David had developed faithful and mighty men out of that disgruntled bunch, upgrading them to a level that they were referred to as the mighty men of David.

Like Abraham of whom Gen 14:14 says he trained 318 men born in his household into fearful warriors and he led them out to defeat an allied army of four kings. Wonderful! See Jesus too, he told Peter follow me and I will make you fisher of men and at Pentecost Peter proved the success of Jesus training programme in competence and capacity development, one sermon fished in about 3000 men into the kingdom. You see, true leaders are committed to competence and capacity development.

Now, your current level in competence and capacity matters less to how and when you intend to move up to a higher level of development. Increase your capacity now.

This days what employers seek is what you can offer. A greater capacity gives you an edge over other applicants. Don’t seek relevance on a narrow skill set; versatility is highly valuable to life and organizations in this age. Luckily the times have made available several materials and avenues like online learning, to learn new skills and develop several areas. You have to increase your competence and capacity.  

You become indispensable if you are always on lookout for how to develop yourself to tackle problems in life and your organization even before the problems show up.

Everyone faces problems, but few understand it, some tackles it rightly but leaders perceive and set in place necessary strategies to solve it, they are in a higher level of competence, the level of experts. What do you or your organization need now? What could be possible problems in future? What are you doing to be able to confront these problems?

To take advantage of opportunities, you need to improve. Improvement in competence and capacity builds confidence and reliability in carrying out tasks

What steps do I take if I want to improve my competence and capacity?

1. The first thing is to identify the area you wish to develop. Having a clear knowledge of the area of interest is important. Judge what is relevant and gauge how good you are in it at the moment. You can ask questions or gather feedback from people. Do you need to improve or develop new skills to better prepare for opportunities or challenges?

If you are able to determine the area for developments, the next thing I will advice you is to read broadly about it in other to zero in on a particular aspect while gaining general knowledge of the area.

2. Identify what is possible in that area, who has done it and where you can get the relevant knowledge. Identifying what is possible will challenge your complacency. One of the best motivations you can find is locating who has done it or succeeding in that area. This gives you confidence that your quest is possible. Even if no one, why don’t you become a trail blazer?

Then you need to source for avenue, materials, persons or group that can help you in your quest for improvement. Attend training and seminars, enrol for courses and special classes, engage in targeted research etc.

3. Connect to experts or persons in that area of interest. You would be amazed at what is possible in an area when you are in network with the right persons. You will have quick access to current news and materials, and a support group for assistance.

4. Make use of every opportunity to learn. Sometimes you won’t be able to tell where the relevant knowledge lies. Besides, a little idea can salvage the situation on rainy a day. It takes humility to learn from people perceived to be below your standard. You may pay expensively to learn a skill when it is offered at a lesser cost in best quality just at your backyard. Don’t despise home grown geniuses.

5. Practice: Practice makes mastery. Having known and explored the knowledge of what is possible; the best bet to improve competence is in practice, doing what you have learnt. As you do you may stumble from time to time, do not quit. Receive feedback and continue to explore. You can practice in a team or participate in carrying out new projects. Perfection does not come suddenly, it is a journey. You journey into perfection by constant practice. Don’t wait to be perfect before you start, start today and journey into competence.

Finally, what area would you want to develop your competence and capacity? Do you have an idea of what is attainable? Look for persons that can help you develop in that area and ask for their help. You will be amaze at you exponential improvement if you put into practice all you would be exposed to. I hope to meet a better version of you next time. Cheers

I am always happy to get feedback from you. Are there areas you want us to talk about or an invitation to speak at your event, send us a message!

This is Sam-Attu with Champions of Destiny Foundation …giving wings to your dreams.