Embrace Your Incompetence!

I have written before, and I will again, that the word incompetent should never be used to describe an entire person. It should never be used as an insult and we should never shy away from understanding it or using it in the proper context.

Yes, it has been misused by many around the world to label people we don't like, mistrust, or we are disappointed in. It has been misused to forge a viewpoint that a person has low wits, low intelligence, few beneficial talents, and often worthless.

Those that use it to define a whole person, or whole skill set, are "incompetent" it their utilization of the word.

So how should we use it?

Before judging ones competence lets take a step back and first define what we are trying to communicate in the first place. Each and every one of us is full of strengths and weaknesses. Teams are built around strengths in order to mitigate weaknesses. Battles were won by resourcefully using terrain, men, equipment, and strategy to overcome barriers and limitations. Profits are gained by limiting expenses and enhancing revenues often by utilizing all resources efficiently as possible. Even in individual sports, coaches are needed, and teams are built behind the scene to enhance results. Being fully equipped does not always mean we ourselves carry all the skills necessary to accomplish an end goal.

Can anyone of us claim to be competent in all things? Can even championship teams claim no faults? Very few have had unbeaten records, and even fewer didn’t need a little luck also.

The Florida Marlins professional baseball team was disbanded the very next year after winning the World Series. Why in the world would they do that you may ask? After all they were the best in the world. Why not make another run? Simple answer...they ran that team at a deficit. They over spent. That’s right, that didn't have the money to do it again. Genius or incompetence? Well, that truly depends on your perspective.

And that is my point in all this. Embracing your specific incompetence should be a rallying cry to your own self-motivation to either improve yourself, so you become competent in the skill you want to perform, or build a team with members who have strengths you don't. It should be as simple as that.

One fundamental necessity of a proven leader is to know their limitations, and find members of a team that can complement the others on your team in areas of deficit so that the team can operate optimally. Thus it is essential that we understand what our individual weaknesses are, and where our teams might be lacking, then embrace those incompetencies in order to either improve our skill deficit, or find others that have the skill or talent and the know-how and willingness to use it.