I do not know. There - I have said it. What do I not know? Well, the list is long.
However, I am not embarrassed because I have always felt that ‘I know nothing’ is a good starting point. To quote Socrates, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
I am not saying that ignorance is bliss, and hence, let us all remain ignorant. Quite the opposite! I like competent, dependable people—people who know what is going on, what is not and what is to be done to rectify that.
However, only if we realize that we do not know something can we learn. Experts in psychology say that people learn in four stages.

1. Unconscious incompetence: The stage where we are not even aware that we do not have a particular competence.
2. Conscious incompetence:  We want to learn how to do something but are incompetent at doing it.
3. Conscious competence: We can achieve a particular task but are very conscious about everything we do.
4. Unconscious competence: We have finally mastered a task and are not even conscious of it while we perform it, such as when we learn and ride a bike well.

These stages relate to the psychological states involved in the progress from incompetence to competence in a skill.  This is also known as the conscious competence learning model.
So I am at stage two as regards my long list. Hope to reach stage four soon. I am trying.
Do you have a list? Have you checked where you are?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you wish to check what skills you have and at what proficiency level you are now, maybe we can help. Click here, register for free, identify your training needs and find training programs.

X is going to resign her seven-figure salary job and work with an NGO for six months.
Is she deranged? No. Far from it.
She manages a team at a multi-national bank and is rated one of their best employees.
“So what happens after six months?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. I will decide then.”
She seemed at peace at what could be the defining point in her career. She is one of the many who are making conscious choices to leave the rat race and pursue personal satisfaction. 
I realize that we live in an age where the image of success is sometimes more important than actual success. However, people have started asking themselves: What is the definition of success? Do material possessions define life? Do we have to bear the drudgery of a job we hate?
They are finding that their definition of success is far different from others. However, they are not bothered; they do not fear being isolated from the mainstream.
So how do they do it?  They believe in:

• Appreciating themselves and their achievements
• Discovering  interests close to their heart
• Visualizing their future
• Developing realistic expectations
• Defining what success really means to them
• Choosing/changing their jobs/careers wisely
• Focusing on goals
• Not worrying about results

Are you dissatisfied with your current job or career? If not, retrain yourselves and choose another. For more advice on career change, read the resources given here. You can profile your skills, identify your training needs, and check the list of training programs given on the Individuals page at our site.
Find the work you love, train yourself and excel at it. Why leave your heart at home when you go to work?

Yesterday I was chatting with CEO of mid size company in the IT industry. I was taking him through our product which we will be launching soon – Talent Development System. The important aspect of TDS is a powerful yet simple profiling of skills of employees in a company. Pre-loaded with skills in different functions across specializations within the functions we believe it is a cutting edge application which will enable companies to capture inventory of skills of their employees.

Suddenly he went silent during the discussion and after a while asked me – “Do you think organizations really care about skills and things like that?” I was little surprised with his question as I always felt that there was such a need for any organization. I asked why this question. He said “Ramu, you know every company fudges data on skills of their employees. When they present resumes to customers they fudge the resumes showing projects in the resumes which the employee has never done. I have seen and heard about these things even in large companies.” Thereafter we went to much deeper discussion of my own experiences.

But the fact that such a question came up makes one ask whether organizations care. I for one believe that yes they do care. Industries have changed in the last two decades. IT industry for one has matured significantly during this period. The HR practices in the leading organizations have evolved to create some of the best HR practices. These include inventorying and developing of skills. But having said that I believe that same level of maturity in the practices which one would find in the leading organizations may not be seen in the medium and small sized companies – which form the large portion of the industries. There are a number of reasons for this partly business driven, partly inadequacies of the HR function itself. But the question is whether organizations want to invest in the moving up the value chain. I firmly believe that organizations want to.

I for one believe that it is the not the headcount which matters but the inventory of skills these headcount possess that matters. Without having a proper scientific inventory of skills how can one manage a company when the fundamental driver of businesses is the talent of people.

I guess the problem is not whether organizations care for inventorying of skills but how do they do that. Well, our solution - TDS - should enable these organizations. Hang on, it is coming soon.

Training needs of individuals are closely tied to the career plan of individuals. One’s career plan may emerge from temperament or aptitude, aspirations and opportunities.

Opportunities can be viewed as those within the organisation and those outside the organisaiton. An organisation which is seeking to rotate its staff between different verticals or technologies or service lines gives opportunities to the staff therein to take responsibilities in new area. Or organisation planning to promote or give additional responsibilities (a larger team to handle, a bigger territory, a higher P & L) gives opportunities for one to develop or put to use ones higher levels of proficiency in those skills. Organisations which are having business plans to grow non linearly (through opening up business in different geography, starting new product or service line etc.) provide opportunities to individuals to get involved in different skills or further specialise or gainer richer experience in their capabilities.

Thus an understanding of the organisation plan does help in clarifying to one what the future opportunities for one could be and prepare oneself to capitalise on these roles. From a different angle the same becomes the responsibility of HR or managers/leaders in the organisation – providing visibility for the upcoming opportunities to their staff and helping them prepare to capitalise on the emerging opportunities.

The choice one would make with regard to the opportunities are closely related to the aspirations and aptitude/temperament of an individual. Career plan could be from different factors as has been described in the panch marg of career paths. The five themese therein include:

1.       Larger
2.       Deeper
3.       Wider
4.       Newer
5.       Different

1.       Improving proficiency levels in the current capabilities and/or
2.       Developing capabilities in new skills areas

Training needs emerge from all the above

In the 3D capabilities profile we have four areas of skills – functional/technical skills; behavioural or soft skills; business/managerial skills and avocational skills. One could explore various possibilities by drilling down each of these areas. One can see the wide range of skills in different functions and specialisations. These help in identifying areas one may want to get trained to further enhance ones proficiency in the said area and also identify the newer areas one may want to get trained in.

We go to a doctor when we are unwell. What does the doctor do? First, the doctor asks us several questions on the state of our health, how we are feeling, etc. If required the doctor then asks to get some tests done such as X Ray or blood diagnostics and so on.

The same is true for a financial counsellor. When one goes to a financial counsellor to take investment advice, the counsellor first analyses the “as is” position – current earnings and current savings and then analyses our temperament – our risk appetite, our lifestyle etc. He then uses his knowledge of the various financial instruments, their behaviour, pluses and minuses and makes us recommendations.

In short any consultant or a counsellor does two things – one diagnosis and then prescribe solutions.

The same should be or is true for HR specialist. We are expected to diagnose and prescribe solutions to individuals and organisations. When an individual approaches a HR specialist for advice on career development, the HR specialist should be diagnosing the “as is” state of the individual’s career and its related aspects. These would include the kind of progress the individual has made so far, the capabilities one has built, the aspirations of the individual and so on. Then the HR specialist is expected to prescribe solutions for the individual. The prescription comes from the HR specialist’s knowledge of the talent market, the pros and cons of various options, industry analysis and so on. The prescription has to be tailor made to the individual’s psyche or personality and specific to the individual. What works for one will not work for another. For instance, one who is looking for security and stability and is risk averse maybe advised to look for options within one’s industry or even company.

1. Good analysis of the individual’s as is state – hard (for example achievements, experiences) and soft (temperament, aspirations)
2. Good understanding of trends and behaviour related to the market dynamics and
3. Tailor making prescriptions for the individual or organisations

HR personnel need to be real custodians of latest trends and market behaviour. In my view there is little conscious investment by HR folks in this area because of which they are not able to assert themselves in the same manner that medical professionals are able to do in the field of medicine and financial counsellors do in the field of finance. Talent should be nurtured as the core domain of HR folks and if they need to establish themselves as such then their richness, comprehensiveness and awareness of latest trends should be as it is for specialists in other fields.

This is a very important article re-emphasizing a significant trend which we have been noticing for years now and are seeing accelerate even further. The analysis is primarily from the prevailing scenario in the US. However, I feel there are points which have implications or are indicators of things happening and to come world over.

Some of the key points made in this artilce include:

- recession has accelerated the process of finding alternates to permanent jobs including automation, temping, outsourcing and so on

- "diminishing job security is also widening the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid workers

- "....26% of the US workforce had jobs that were in one way or another "nonstandard". That includes independent contractors, temps, part-times, and freelancers."

Read:

The Disposable Worker - from the Business Week

My comments:

The fact that we are in turbulent times when change is accelerating the changes in the engagement model between the employer and the employee. This phenomenon of temping is not new. It has always been there. Labour was hired during the harvest season (seasonal workers). I worked in a PSU and notice that 30% of the labour was on contract (this was twenty years back). However, what may be new is that the so called temping and alternate models of engagement are happening at skilled and managerial levels too. Well, maybe we thought these levels were permanent. It is not. Alternate modes of engagement will increase for many reasons. Only one of them is the recession or the consciousness to reduce costs of labour. The other reason is also the changing attitude of the individuals to the engagement patterns of the yester-years. Many are opting voluntarily and consciously out of the corporate permanent regimen which would then force the corporates to find alternate engagement models if they desire to engage this pool of talent.

Whichever way it may be - whether the alternate engagement models are a consequence of changing behaviour of human beings or is driven by the organisations due to economic necessities, one thing is clear - the individual will have to take responsibility for one's career. And this includes career from a holistic perspective i.e. what is expected from work, how one wants to manage ones life for now and the future and so on. The era of individualisation demands maturing of individuals to take responsibility for their selves.

Our career development, from one perspective can be viewed to be a balancing of two different needs - need to constantly strengthen our core talent or skills and the need to be flexible to the changing environment.

We have certain aptitudes at our core. We have further nourished them through our school and college education, training and experience in jobs. These talents or skills are central to us when we are into our professional life.We may have had the aptitude to sell, got trained in selling and gained experience in selling in one or more companies. Selling skills is thus central to us. We need to appreciate this central nature of talent. We need to constantly enrich this central talent of ours.

But this central talent or skills is one side of the story. How and where we apply them is another and they involve the context in which we apply them. In the case of selling the context could be selling of say consumer goods.

Some of the contexts change and they may change quite rapidly. New companies emerge. Even new industries emerge. Mobile industry was nascent till the mid 90s and in the last decade and half it has grown quite rapidly. Within the industry itself the changes have been quite dramatic. Internet proliferation and the businesses leveraging the Internet start proliferating aggressively since the mid 90s. Now we hear of nanotechnology, green tehcnology, and so on.

The industries themselves are contexts. Every industry has at its core some specific knowledge or technology which is central to the industry. For example the telecom industry has at its core the communications technology. But the industry itself employs people from different skills, functions, for example, the customer service, marketing, finance, HR, manufacturing and so on. These changes in the industries give opportunities for individuals to move across the newer industries from the previous ones.

The shift is possible from one industry to another if one is flexible enough to adapt to the different context. An aspiring salesman may see the emerging businesses as opportunity and move into them. There would be nuances of the industry specific to the industry which the individual may have to pick up fast. Moving to a mobile industry would require the salesman to appreciate the different kinds of products and services of the industry, the value proposition for the customers and so on.

The adapatability has to be coupled with the core theme of strengthening ones talent in that function or domain of ones choice. If I am salesman I would need to keep honing my selling skills. So we need to keep our core solid and keep strengthening it while we we are also adaptable to the contextual changes.

Balance of the dual forces for harmony applies to talent too - balance between the stengthening of the core and the flexibility at the periphery.

Newer specializations are required in the finance function given the changes taking place in the regulatory regime.

Economic Times, in its article headlined CFOs take new lessons to reinvent job profiles, brings out an analysis of the specialisations which are seen to be emerging in the finance function.

There are significant changes which are happening the regulatory and statutory areas related to finance. Financial reporting under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) replaces Indian GAAP. Direct Tax code for the Income Tax Act, GST, and the new Companies Act are scheduled to be implemented in the coming year or two. Added to these changes are also the strategic decisions including venturing overseas.

All the above would require review of past investment decisions and reworking of the business models.

Taxation, Risk and assurance, Corporate finance, Mergers and acquisitions are emerging as specialisations within the finance functions.

"Retraining and relearning" is a means to ease things says Mr Rao CFO of JSW Group in the article.