It's All Right! I've Been Doing This For Years

'The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don't know.' 

Albert Einstein

There is a day I remember quite distinctly. It was raining, the clouds were full of despair, and the streets exemplified hopelessness. Too dramatic? 

Ok, it was a day much like any other day. On this particular day though (that was much like any other day), I was facilitating a leadership effectiveness workshop. I was new to the training world, a new L & D Manager, inexperienced and enthusiastic. The day had started well. I had opened up the session confidently. Everyone seemed energised and engaged. We were on a scheduled break and up walked a colleague whom I had known for some time and what he said next has stuck with me all these years.

 "You know all this leadership training stuff is good for the new managers but I have been a manager for eight years now and there is nothing new you could teach me." Then he continued with "It's all right I've been doing this for years, I've got this covered."

Now, the thing that blew me away was not actually what he said but why and how he said it. As I mentioned, I knew this person. He had indeed been a manager for roughly eight years but what struck me was how he had completely overrated his capability and performance. Did he really think he was that good? It was obvious he hadn't been overly successful in his managerial career. His results had been average at best and his leadership track record was wanting. The truth was he was part of the reason we had built the leadership workshop he was attending. 

Yet, he was sure! He believed wholeheartedly in what he was telling me, he was overflowing with self-confidence. Yet he was severely lacking in self-awareness.

This situation intrigued me! How could someone overrate their capability by so much? How could an individual believe that they are a lot better than their performance and results would indicate? The reality is I have seen this same situation replayed in several forms over a hundred times. The questions that needed answering are: Why does this happen? What are the implications? Also, if I am being honest have I asked myself these questions about my own abilities and attitudes? What areas of my performance am I blind to? What endeavours am I currently undertaking that I am over-confident and incompetent?

"Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention" 

Hudson Maxim

To satisfy my curiosity, I got reading! In researching, I discovered two essential concepts. Firstly, tenure doesn't equate to expertise. Secondly, confidence does not equate to competence. 

To better understand these concepts, I started looking at the well-known Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Dunning-Kruger Effect came into existence in 1999 from psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. 

The Dunning-Kruger Effect refers to our tendency to overestimate our knowledge and competence in a given area. In simple terms, it is when we believe we are better at something than we are; therefore, we stop learning. Through incompetence and ignorance, we fail to recognise our gaps! When we stop learning, we stop improving and we stop progressing. 

One of the key insights to come from the Dunning-Kruger research was the impact of our self-esteem on our ability to identify our ability gaps. No one likes to feel bad about themselves. The realisation that there is a gap in our knowledge could be for some too much to handle. It could reflect in a lack of intelligence resulting in a knock to their self-esteem. Our ego lies. It tells us we have to protect our image, we have to have all the answers and we can not make mistakes! Our pride gets in the way of our learning and we actively avoid conveying ignorance and asking for help. 

"The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better."

Ryan Holiday

The second critical insight I took from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, was the less we know about a topic, the less aware we are of what we don't know. When we overestimate our understanding of a subject, our ignorance hinders our ability to accurately self evaluate our performance. Due to our lack of knowledge, we can make the mistake of assuming we are a lot better at something than in reality we are! Sound familiar? When we stop learning, we stop improving and our performance stagnates!

Dunning and Kruger explained this situation as "Those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realise it."

How can we combat the Dunning-Kruger Effect when we see it in ourselves? I have had to take stock and reflect on where this 'effect' might be impacting my performance. Where is my ego getting in the way of my learning? Where is my ego getting in the way of asking for help? Is my pride hindering my progress?

Fortunately, David Dunning has some simple advice for avoiding the Dunning-Kruger Effect: 

"I try to be a little more intellectually humble. A good question to ask is: What is missing? What don't I know? I've found that's an excellent way to think through real, substantive issues."

Staying humble in the early stages of learning is essential. It is critical to understand that as a learner, we need to go through a learning process. It will take time and effort. Committing to the process of building our competence and confidence is vital. Importantly we need to seek feedback on our performance and understand its value on our progress.

The final word on this concept I will leave for Ryan Holiday, the author of one of my favourite books 'Ego Is The Enemy."

"You must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head.

Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. It's easy to be emotionally invested and infatuated with your own work.

Any and every narcissist can do that.

?What is rare is not raw talent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness."

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a fascinating topic, and in this post, I have only been able to touch on it briefly. The interesting point of all this is that the more I learned about the Dunning-Kruger Effect the more I realised I didn't know. Humbling right?

I hope I have piqued your interest enough to investigate it in more depth...