The Importance of Knowledge and Attitudes in the Competency Equation

Let’s continue the conversation on breaking down the components of competency from my muse on October 16th, 2021. In that article we defined the word “competency” as being composed of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities. Here, I want to drill deeper into the difference between knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

You’re going to hear me talk A LOT about the importance of skills-based hiring and the skill portfolio as an alternative signal of workreadiness versus the current standard - the college degree. As we engage in the upcoming Reskilling Revolution to reskill up to a billion people globally over the next decade, it is imperative that we develop more cost-effective, direct onramps into the world of work and cross-ramps between jobs/careers. 

However, during those future conversations, I don’t want you to think that knowledge, attitudes, and abilities should somehow take a backseat to skills. All four components of competency are critical to long-term workplace success.

Previously, we defined knowledge as “The body of facts, principles, and theories that are related to a field of work or study.” Attitudes are defined as “Learned behaviors, emotional intelligence traits, and beliefs that individuals exhibit that influence their approach to ideas, persons, and situations.” Many in non-academic circles rail against the frivolity of theoretical knowledge, the acquisition of facts and principles, and the maturation/expansion of attitudes as ‘fluff’ and recommend instead that the most pragmatic approach to developing competency for a job or career is to focus on demonstrating “what you can do” (a skills focus).

However, competency in any setting is the combination of knowledge AND skills AND attitudes AND ability. There is no “OR” in the equation for competency and to focus primarily on one element without also nurturing the others will lead to unbalanced outcomes - meaning unbalanced employees and citizens. 

Education is both a theoretical and a practical/experiential exercise. Any educational journey should continue the process of building skill and enhancing an individual’s ability to function within teams and society at large. Said differently, the goal of any educational intervention should be to produce workready graduates AND “rounded” citizens.

If I experientially teach you how to do a thing without providing the foundational knowledge about that thing’s history or the math that makes it work, there’s little chance you’ll be able to reach the level of expertise needed to progress to the next level of that thing’s use. More importantly, simply knowing how to perform a skill does not mean that you can think critically/creatively about how to use the thing in different ways to innovate and advance a process or system. 

Should it take 4+ years after high school graduation to acquire a viable set of skills and become “rounded” enough to succeed in the world of work? In my opinion, NO.

There have to be more cost- and time-efficient ways to build a baseline portfolio of skills needed to perform in a job AND instill a baseline bank of knowledge and attitudes that support high-functioning individuals and teams in the workplace. Specifically, we need to do a better job as parents, community leaders, and educators to build all components of competency during high school AND create alternative work-to-learn pathways that don’t require students to remove themselves from the job market until they’re ’fully formed’ upon graduation from college and accumulate mountains of debt. 

We must promote the acquisition and pursuit of knowledge and continuous development of attitude as a lifelong endeavor. Not doing so will lead to more fixed mindsets and allow mis/disinformation to spread even more widely than it does today.

True freedom is a well-balanced education, the continuous pursuit of a growth mindset, and the ability to empathize and communicate with other humans that don’t talk or look exactly the same as you. 

In our search for more efficient educational pathways, let’s not allow the pendulum to swing too far toward a skills-only approach.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.

Andy