Yes, you can be overly confident, and cocky. We see plenty of that with #fail tagged on social media these days.
Yes, you can be highly competent and lack confidence. We often see this on tv shows like America/Britain’s Got Talent, etc.
But at breakfast with Dave Sands & Brian Kuhn, Brian was talking about doing some extreme mountain biking with a group, and how he noticed that confidence and competence created a positive loop with each one increasing the other.
I noticed the same while downhill riding with my nephew. We did a couple runs of the same trail and I hadn’t ridden like that in over 15 years. The first run, I followed him and avoided some of the tracks he chose, keeping myself ‘safe’ but also feeling scared anyway. I kept seeing myself make a bad choice and going over the handlebars or into a tree. I tried a couple things out of my comfort zone, was cautious and mostly unsuccessful. But by the end of that run, I could feel my confidence build, having not had any worse case scenarios materialize.
Round two was a different story. I attacked the hill trying everything my nephew did, and while I couldn’t keep the same line as him, I could feel my confidence and my competence rise. My speed was better, keeping closer to him, and I rode far better than the first run.
Confidence feeds competence, which feeds confidence…
I really like your point about competence feeding confidence feeding competence, but I feel like you are missing an aspect to your story. To me, confidence and competence come from having a mentor or model, someone who instills a sense of confidence to stretch your competence. I think this is one of the challenges when we talk about developing educational leaders for tomorrow, it can be hard to build both confidence and competence when venturing into the unknown.
Excellent insight on all counts Aaron! Brian Kuhn also commented on LinkedIn that Courage also plays a key role. I was playing with a Venn diagram with all 3 C’s but it seems a bit forced and I need to think on it more.
Competence doesn’t just come from Confidence, you do need that outside support/mentorship to really grow. And when you are venturing beyond traditional ’maps’, I think collaboration and reflection are also key. In a way I oversimplified things, but the relationship is definitely there… and not just for activities like mountain biking!
Thanks as always Aaron,
Dave
Thank you Dave for your clarification. It has me thinking whether confidence and competence without collaboration is somehow insincere or incomplete. As always, you have left me with something to think about.