The Baldrige Criteria (5.2c) ask how you address the learning and development needs of your leaders, including needs that are both self-identified and identified by their superiors. I’d like to focus on the identification of those needs and suggest a role for the Conscious Competence Ladder.

The ladder is particularly helpful with coaching leaders on what they need to learn. Somebody has probably developed a behavior/skill checklist for slotting leaders into one of the ladder’s four rungs:

Level 1: Unconscious Incompetence. The leader is clueless about the subject, lacking almost any knowledge or skills. Worse yet, the leader is not aware of this weakness and, as a result, exudes confidence where none is warranted. We’ve all had leaders like this.

Level 2: Conscious Incompetence. The leader realizes his/her ability is limited and that others are much more competent in this area. The leader’s confidence plummets until learning takes place.

Level 3: Conscious Competence. The leader puts his/her learning into practice and gains confidence during the process.

Level 4: Unconscious Competence. Repeatedly applying the new knowledge and skills create new habits that allow the leader to perform confidently and without conscious effort.

All of us, including leaders, need someone to help us figure out where we are on this ladder for any given behavior or skill. A performance management system should do that for all employees. It should also provide the learning opportunities, development plans, incentives, and progress reviews that will help leaders and other employees improve and grow.

The New Age of REason has a fine table describing the characteristics of each level and what needs to be done to move up the ladder.

To read more about leadership, click on these articles:

• Young Blood in the Executive Suite
• Baldrige.com on Culture
• How to Be the Best
• Leading Also Means Managing
• What Great Organizations Achieve
• Leadership Matters Most

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