Jenny Bird and Sarah Gornall describe working with the competence ladder, a model for exploring the discomfort of learning
Lots of coaches are familiar with the competence ladder, which describes a series of predictable stages through
which people pass as they learn something new. It’s a useful model in relation to our own development and for helping clients recognise where they are on their learning journey.
Some of these predictable stages are more comfortable than others:
- Stage 1 We don’t know what we don’t know. We’re in a state of unconscious incompetence
- Stage 2 We now know that we don’t know. We’re in a state of conscious incompetence
- Stage 3 We know that we know when we think about it. We’re in a of conscious competence
- Stage 4 We just know. We’re in a state of unconscious competence
Taking it further
Over many years in learning, development, training and coaching, we’ve each used the competence ladder in a variety of ways. When we started to work together, we discussed what we’d learned from practice and how to enhance use of the competence ladder to support clients’ learning, and we added a further stage to the ladder.
As Figure 1 depicts, our version recognises that learning is not a once-and-for-all journey: we may grow our competence and then find it diminishing or entering a new phase.
This additional stage, mastery, identifies a level of flow that we may consider very desirable and which
also holds potential dangers if we consider ourselves above the rules or lose sight of the journey.
- Stage 5 We take our knowing for granted. This is the stage of mastery, when we don’t think about the fact
that we know. We may be brilliant at what we do, relaxed and at ease, generous and gracious in sharing
our knowledge.
Fatal flaws
However, we may forget about the learning we’ve undertaken to get here and gradually grow complacent, operating in our own little bubble without checking that our tools are kept honed and up to date.
We may also assume that other people know the same things or have the same competence, and become impatient if they don’t. We may think we take our competence so lightly that we start to juggle myriad
other tasks at the same time, to the detriment of all.
This is like the driver who gets into their fast custom-built car to zip a couple of hundred miles up the motorway before breakfast for a meeting, has a takeaway coffee to hand, is alternately listening to a foreign language app in preparation for a holiday, listening to the financial news and talking to their PA about the forthcoming appointments as they go.
They could just arrive on time, calm, at ease and in control – or they could collide with other (‘stupid’) drivers, causing damage or death to themselves and others.
Working with clients in Stages 2 and 3
Most people want to jump straight from stage 1 to stage 4, bypassing the inherent discomfort of stages 2 and 3 completely, wanting to have the result without the effort. Here are a few things we’ve heard people say when they’re in these stages:
I can’t do it:
- I’m no good at …
- X is much better than me
- It’s just too hard
- I’m not a leader
- I’ll never get there
Some of these are to do with ability, some with identity and some with perception of a body of knowledge.
Make it work
All can be challenged in the coaching arena in many standard ways, asking the questions suggested in Table 1.
A shift in self-understanding, self-talk and self-perception may occur as a result of this coach-assisted reframing.
Working with the competence ladder
Make it work
The ladder can be offered explicitly to clients as a framework for understanding how they interact with learning and new challenges. It can help them realise that discomfort is a natural part of the learning journey and that we all go through these stages as we transition from one context to another, acquire new skills and understanding and develop new sets of behaviours.
When people can accept the discomfort they feel without discounting themselves or their abilities, their resilience is strengthened. They realise learning is inherently a stretching activity that carries with it awareness of what we can’t do, yet puts us in a better place to develop new strategies and habits of mind.
This helps them accelerate learning, and be more accepting of other people’s learning processes to better support their development.
Much coaching happens at points of transition so we often encounter clients who are anxious, self-critical or frustrated as they start to develop new competencies or work within new structures. When we observe this pattern we explore the assumptions and self-talk and we may offer the model (without attachment) and
invite the client to explore where they may be in the process and how they’re feeling about that. Sometimes, just being able to see the natural sequence is reassuring.
We may also help the client – individual or team – to recognise that they might put different skills and abilities at different points on the model. This can help them recognise we’re all good (and bad) at different things Clients often smile wryly at the snake in Figure 1, which can open them up to checking where they may be on autopilot. Indeed we’ve sometimes invited individuals or teams to place their various skill sets at appropriate points on the model. This is always a snapshot of now. We all move up the ladder and (if not vigilant) down the snake.
In leadership and coach training
we would use the model in a large space so that people can stand in different places and see how they rank themselves and where others place themselves. This will open conversations about how we perceive ourselves, what good enough looks like, what standards the organisation wants to adopt.
We place markers across a continuum and invite people to stand where they see themselves now. We then invite people to say why they are standing there and how it feels. It often amuses the group to note that one person standing in conscious incompetence is excited about the learning to come and another despondent that they know so little.
We’d usually do this at the start of a programme and revisit it later so people have a physical sense of development. This builds confidence and often leads to appreciation and endorsement of colleagues.
Stage 5
The visual connection between mastery and danger names something many clients recognise, and we hear people sigh with relief when they acknowledge it can be a conscious effort to stay in competence. Most coaches will have worked with people whose aim is to “keep on top of things”; “be the best I can be”; “stay ahead of the competition”; “not get complacent”. That’s the top of the ladder – and the snake’s tail. Opening up a conversation about the joys of flow and fear of failure is of value to sustained confidence and competence.
Offering models to clients
Fatal flaw
All good coaching is client-led and not a space in which to prescribe or insist. So we introduce models as an offering, an optional framework for identifying patterns, progress and possibilities. We offer something which springs, as do our questions and other interventions, out of in-the-moment work with the client. We always think the very best questions are the ones we can never ask again because they are so focused on that client in that situation. But that’s another story.
- Individually Jenny Bird and Sarah Gornall offer executive coaching and supervision. Together, they write, present, and design and deliver masterclasses for coaches worldwide.
- J Bird and S Gornall, The Art of Coaching: A Handbook of Tips and Tools, Routledge, 2016
- Illustration in Figure 1 by permission of Josie Vallely
Table 1: Coach-assisted reframing
I can’t do it How does it feel when you say that?
Which bits can’t you do?
What can you do?
What if you could do it?
When else can you remember having that feeling?
What helped then?
What would be the first step towards doing it?
What makes it worth doing?
I’m no good at … No good?
What does good at mean?
Who is good at it?
How might you get better?
What are you good at now that you once weren’t good at?
X is much better than me And…?
How did X get better?
How are you doing?
What would be the first step to be more like X?
How much do you want to be like X?
It’s just too hard Tell me about hard?
What are the options when things are hard?
What would make it less hard?
How much hard is OK?
l I’m not a leader Who says?
What are you?
How might other people see you?
What is a leader like for you?
How much do you want to be a leader?
What would that feel/be/sound/look like?
If you were a leader here, what might you be doing?
I’ll never get there Never?
Where else might you get?
What if you did?
Imagine you are there now…
What would it give you to be there?
Do you want to try?
