Hooptie High

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of celebrating my mom’s 79th birthday with her.  She requested to have lunch at The Country Inn in Berkley Springs, WV. After lunch, with our bellies full, we were enjoying the warm afternoon, driving on the curvy roads, and singing along to the iconic John Denver song, “Country Roads.”  We were fully enjoying the scenic mountains views. 

All of a sudden a hooptie car came flying up behind us, radio blaring, and passed us on a solid line-  on a curve - with a drop off on the other side from the mountain.  In my mom’s wisdom of 79 years, she said, “he’s high on confidence and low on skill.” 

 As an industrial organizational psychologist, this got me thinking about the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  But, for the purposes of this blog -  a simple quad chart will do.

 As leaders, we need to grow and develop in both skill and confidence.  Ultimately, we want to be highly skilled with high confidence, but this is a journey and takes time.  What we sometimes miss is when skill and confidence are not in sync – we call these blind spots.  For example, sad is the leader who thinks he/she is competent (confidence) only to lose their highest performer because they were not creating a positive environment (skill). 

On the other end, if the leader is highly skilled, but lacks confidence, their credibility is questioned.

If both areas are low, at least there is something to work with!  If the leader has a growth mindset, they will acknowledge their lack of skillset, which leads to lack of confidence and can develop themselves from there.

 There’s lots to play with in this model and various scenarios to unpack.  Hit me up for a coffee and deeper conversation.  In the mean time, listen to your mom’s advice!

Cara Graham Parker: 540.623.7454/cara.parker@cparkerconsulting.com