Pace- a new element of competency?

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes constitute competency of a person. It is normally believed that person having adequate knowledge and skills with right set of attributes will be able to deliver successful results.

Every organization is at its own pace for getting the jobs done. Same job is carried out at different pace in different companies and that is very normal and natural.

 I believe ‘pace of a person at which a person works within an organization’ is an element of his competency.

Pace at which a person works within an organization and pace at which organization functions should match. Thus, the pace of a person relative to organization’s pace becomes an element of competency of that person. Whether he will be able to deliver successful results will largely depend on the pace of the person.

 I was involved in a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) for one of the key position holders in a refinery. We shall call this as refinery A. The person was the In Charge of a function and he joined the organization about two years before. We shall call him Mr. X. He was fully qualified for the position and he had already worked for the same function in almost same position in his earlier organization. His knowledge and skills in his function were extra ordinary. There was no change in reporting team and the superior for Mr. X. In short, no other change in the department except this person himself- all others below and above this person were already working in the same organization and delivering successful results.

With all these plus factors, Mr. X was not able to deliver successful results consistently. I tried to understand the exact reasons for this person’s inability to perform successfully. I interacted with Mr. X very much in details. To my utter surprise, Mr. X himself really did not believe that he was not able to deliver successful results! I kept on observing him closely on how this man was handling his own PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).

I am sharing few observations for this man.

* Mr. X precisely knew what he required to do for his pending tasks- he had absolutely no confusion or doubt.

* He had exact skills set for executing his jobs, which were pending from quite some time.

* He did not have inertia for the work- it was not his lack of enthusiasm or ability to perform. He was acting upon the jobs but not at the pace required within the organization but at his own pace.

* He did not waste his time in doing useless jobs nor did he waste his time in any other unproductive activities at the site.

I also checked track record of Mr. X in previous organizations. He was in same function and consistently successful in his previous organizations.

PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) did not help Mr. X in improving his performance despite positive involvement of the superior of Mr. X, HR and all team members under Mr. X.

In a short period, Mr. X found other job in other refinery and left his job at refinery A. He was once again successful in this job. However, the question is “Why Mr. X was not successful in refinery A’? 

This particular case and few other similar case studies made me to think that ‘Pace’ at which one works within the organization is a vitally important factor.

It is possible that traditional competency experts in Industry may consider that pace of a person at which he works within organization will be part of his attributes and pace need not be considered as additional element.

 My submission is in any case, pace of a person for delivering result of a person is an element of competency for him.