This coming Wednesday, November 17th, I have the honor of being recognized by the Kaplan Educational Foundation with their “Stand Up for Diversity” award.

When Nancy Sanchez, Executive Director of KEF called me to ask if I’d accept the award, my initial response was “Certainly… but surely there must be others more deserving than me?”

Stating the obvious, I’m a 58 year old white male from one of the least diverse places in the country. What do I know about diversity?

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.

This morning, we’re going to continue our conversation around skill portfolios and developing skill inventories within your business. As I’ve looked back on previous posts, I noticed that we’re missing some key set-up logic and definitions.

When I was entering the job market after completing my time as a graduate student at University of Iowa, my mentor, Carl Schweser, asked me a question that has stuck with me ever since.

"Be Good to Yourself" by Journey is one of my favorite songs. The message really resonates with me.

During the construction of the annual budget, we develop highly detailed estimates for capital expenditures, payroll, operating costs, new product development, etc. Then when planning turns to implementation, we often don’t see the results we hoped for because of human capital misalignment - we don’t have the right people in the right roles with the right skill profiles.