Incompetence to competence - The journey and why it matters ??
Saint Construction Support
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Happy Saint Sunday!?
Kim here, I hope you are all doing well!?
This week's Saint Sunday will cover:
- The Four Stages
- Why does change bring pain
- Comfort and self-growth cannot live together
- Getting the Balance right
- An Exclusive For Saint Sunday Readers!
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As it is a long read, we have included an exclusive Power Call for our readers at the end!
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This is quite a powerful self-development tool we teach and it shows the journey you go through especially in Trade coaching as there are new challenges to face as you begin your journey of turning your business around.
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A good way to explain this concept is in the context of learning to drive a car for the first time. The person gets all excited and then they have pedals, levers and everything else that goes with driving a car. They have gone from a good excited state to “WOW, I didn’t realise it was so complicated and this is not as simple as I first thought and I have a lot to learn.”
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The Four Stages
Stage 1 - Unconscious Incompetence (ignorance)
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Stage 2 - Conscious Incompetence (awareness). Then you start to take driving lessons and you start to enjoy the journey of learning as you become more familiar and confident - We call this stage:
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Stage 3 - Conscious Competence (learning).
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Then you progress, polish up your skills with practice and go for the driving test. You Pass! Well done and now you think you know everything but over time you really do realise through experience there is a lot more to driving and over time become calmer with everything. We call this stage:
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Stage 4 - Unconscious Competence (mastery).
What Does This All Mean?
When we have an apprentice start and it’s all new to them, they are in the first stage, all excited but they are unconsciously incompetent, not that that’s a bad thing, it's just where they are. As you observe, you can see them progress and go through the different stages over time, and with training, they can finally go to the site on their own and are fine.
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The four stages are now complete and we should remember to enjoy the journey. This concept is used as a structure for learning and it's good to refer to it especially as you work with others as you become a better leader.
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Why is this important to you? You have most likely seen and done all of this before, whether in business or personal life.
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When people come to us, in the main, they are doing okay but they are either screaming around everywhere and it's like they are driving fast in first gear and just know that’s not right because of the noise and something is going to blow or on the other side is feeling like they have missed the right turn in life somewhere, they are just lost looking for the next exit sign and have been on this road for ages since the last turn off and are now just going through the motions, month after month.
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A working model of this in real-time; During the first part of joining Saint, all of a sudden you are in the middle ground of Stage 1 (Unconscious Incompetence - ignorance) and Stage 2 (Conscious Incompetence - awareness) which we know and expect but the clients sometimes wobble and doubt themselves only because it's all new and facing up to things that need to change, change is hard sometimes for many reasons and many people.
Why does change bring pain?
"Growth and comfort do not coexist" - Ginni Rometty CEO of IBM
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Now, the stage between awareness and learning can feel painful and our mind steps forward to protect us, to comfort us hence the saying ‘comfort zone’. Comfort and self-growth do not enjoy living together so again, it's not you, it's just something new. I have new things to do all the time and I still get amazingly scared but through good coaching you will learn to push on past the fear.
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Together we walk as one and reach the next stage which is Stage 3 - Conscious Competence (learning).?
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This is where we take things slowly with you so it sticks, if we just do it for you and leave, the habit is not made, we need you there to stop it from happening again and going off course, you're on the ground, you can see it on-site or in the office daily so we really are in this together but we need you to learn and police it so we get results quickly. This actually matches the average duration of our Trade Coaching which is usually a 12 month period, it has to be an exceptional situation to go longer as usually, you are ready to take the next step and self-prove it all works yourself.
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Then together we get to Stage 4 - Unconscious Competence (mastery), which is you on your own, pushing ahead. Enjoy it but there will be new challenges and we have to start to understand there are rules to the game. We need to embrace the proven concept and experience that there will be 20% of major problems a year and that's with a really well-run firm. What does it feel like to you, more 50/50?
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This realisation alone, that it will never be calm, is an immediate advance for you.
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Yes, every day is like a school day but running a business in the construction industry seems more like Jumanji so you better get smart quick!
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The reason for this article is so you realise that there is a process, not to be too hard on yourself, that it's okay to get stuck. Our coaching clients still come back to us years later because they are faced with a challenge which is pushing back a bit hard, it may be a new area of work but combined with very tight margins of time or they need a mindset shift, which is required as you grow the business and they can see a bottleneck coming. It’s not a sign of weakness as they now have a much more realistic and confident approach to their business and life balance.
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They contact us because it's a good commercial decision, so this helps this issue quickly pass. It’s just being more honest about what’s going on rather than overwhelm or aimlessly drift.
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Can you do it on your own? Yes, of course. Does an unbiased view which is sometimes a bit cold but needed at times from an outside source help? Of course it does. Every major business does not hesitate to pull a consultant team in and out as they go through their growth.
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Do you think if you were going for funding with a large bank and you said to support your application you have taken the service of business advisors to help the process they would say no? Of course not, it makes more sense, so if the big outfits operate like this it must be for a good reason.
Getting the Balance right
Going back to the young apprentice we mentioned earlier, they have started their journey but you know when and what task to give them next. You measure what they are capable of. Something too hard and they will just get their confidence simply smashed.
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The idea of Saint is we know the trade and the business side. When you would look for how well the apprentice is doing before they go to the next stage, we look for the same data and information. Just as you would carefully play out the next thing to give to the apprentice that is what Saint does when we work with you, it's called scaffold learning which is not a term we created but fits as we are trade only, but starts to show the level we start to work towards as we find out more about the business and how you operate.
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If we skipped 10 stages forward and said let’s work on Stage 10 this would be painful and pointless. We need to simply start at the beginning, get the foundations right, improve communications, and bring in some more control methods with easy viewing.
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Take a moment and chew on that feeling of? "What you do not know, you do not know" which is painful and mainly doubt-based as it appears again and again but especially when leading others, understand the process and how quickly you can move through it and press onto stages 3 & 4. It’s a journey, yes, but you can use this tactic over and over in your life so you don't stall when the first pain comes.
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Business life is hard and the odds are set against you all the time. The odds are 25% in your favour to survive as a business so look for the cheat codes like this.
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Exclusive For Saint Sunday Readers!
?For our dedicated readers, we are providing a free exclusive to have a Power Call with one of our Business Development Advisors!?
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If you are the right person to speak to you, our Power Call is a call to establish your current situation and business goals and find out what is working and what is not. We will find out more about your business and advise you with practical, actionable points and to see how we can help going forward. To take advantage of this exclusive offer, book a call using the link below.
That's a wrap!
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I hope you found this useful! If you would like to go over anything we discussed, please let me know by simply replying to this email.?
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We understand that the marketing world can get confusing, with agencies speaking in their own dialect at times, but it doesn't have to be like that.
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Or book a Power hour call with us here!
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All The Best,
Kim
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Customer Success Manager at Saint Construction Support
P.S. Whenever you are ready, here's how to grow your construction business...