In a short and powerful blog ‘The confusion about competence‘, Seth Godin reminds us how competency is not just about grades, certificates but also about the ability to perform emotional labor.
In some countries such as for example France, India or China, the university one graduates from defines one’s career capability – even many years later. But the selection criteria used on young people do not involve any assessment of the ability to perform emotional labor, to be emotionally intelligent. And this makes so many super-graduated people incompetent in real life. They can only thrive in protected social settings.
“It doesn’t take a genius to see that competence is no longer about our ability to press certain buttons in a certain sequence. Far more often, competence involves the humanity required to connect with other people, in real time. It requires emotional labor, not merely compliance.”
Well said!
