An Ode to Competence

Enjoying Simple, Not Easy? Please consider forwarding it to a friend. New to this email? Welcome! Subscribe here.

The Marine Corps has 11 Leadership Principles which are drilled into the head of all young Marines to serve as the foundation on which their own leadership is built. Number two on that list is, “Be technically and tactically proficient.”

I’ve talked about my love of proficiency in this newsletter before so today I thought I’d write a full love letter to proficiency and competence while trying to convince you that these attributes are a worthy cornerstone of your own leadership philosophy.

Why Competence

Competence matters to all leaders and teams not only because high quality execution is the necessary precursor to differential, positive results but because competent leaders become a magnet which raises the standard of performance of those around them.

Competence has both a magnetic and infectious quality to it. High potential team members want to be led and surrounded by those who inspire them to improve. Competence as a magnet means you will have an easier time recruiting world class talent. Competence as being infectious means those world class team members you’ve recruited will push each other to consistently raise the bar.

Cultivating Competence

Cultivating competence ultimately comes down to your ability to do boring things better than others consistently even when you don’t want to. In the Marines this competence is often expressed by the coaching cue that the goal is to be, “brilliant in the basics.” So often leaders and high performers seek some “new” tactic which will give them an edge while ignoring the fact that they have yet to build a strong foundation for performance built on the basics.

Going back to the title of this newsletter Simple, Not Easy the Marines teach that excellence in combat comes down to the ability to do three simple things, better than others: shoot, move, communicate. Of all the tactical lectures I sat in, drills I rehearsed, training simulations I led the ability to do those three things in a high quality way often dictated success or failure.

Cultivating competence in yourself and on your team will likely come down to your ability to answer these three questions:

1. Do you have well documented standards? (Documentation)

2. Can you and your team execute those standards at a high bar? (Quality)

3. Is that high bar for execution evident every single time? (Consistency)

A Competence Mindset

In addition to cultivating competence on your team with respect to capabilities, it’s important to develop a mindset that is committed to competence.

To cultivate a mindset of competence I have 2 recommendations:

1. Above all else, do your job

2. Treat that job as a craft you intend to master

Above all else, do your job

Ryan Holiday was recently in 29 Palms California speaking to 7th Marines Regiment (my old unit). How / why a New York Times bestselling author found himself in one of the most remote and desolate corners of California speaking to a group of rowdy young Marines I do not know, but his talk is a good one.

Thematically organized around the art of not panicking there is a portion of the speech where he shows a slide which simply says, “Do your job.” This would have resonated well with me in that auditorium as a young Marine and it should with all of us too.

It is so easy to talk ourselves out of doing that which we know we should do. Let me go put in a load of laundry, I should do a bit more research first, I need to respond to that email / Slack before I begin. No. All of these are excuses fueled by fear of doing the work which pull you away from the core tenet of competence. Busyness is not competence, do not fool yourself into thinking so. When you avoid that which you know you need to do because of fear or sloth know that you are letting both yourself and your team down.

When faced with a problem remember that action is the only antidote. Work the problem methodically, thoroughly, without complaint. Above all else, do your job.

Treat that job as a craft you intend to master

John and Patrick Collison, the co-founders of Stripe, are two of my favorite modern business leaders. How can you not love a Fintech company who started their own publishing company simply because they love spreading good ideas (and publishing beautiful books)?

They recently appeared on one of my favorite podcasts talking about building Stripe and the global internet economy. At one point in the episode John discussed the economic imperative / rationality of doing beautiful things:

This notion of a thing beautifully built as an indicator of quality throughout is an excellent way to think about competence. If you treat the job you must do (again, above all else) as a unique craft to be mastered rather than the production of widgets on an assembly line you will always perform your job to a degree of higher quality than others.

In the pursuit of doing your job above all else, treat that job as a craft. If done well and with care the output of this job, whether it be a physical product or simply a well executed meeting with a client, will be beautiful in its own right. That beauty represents a commitment to quality which in and of itself is an expression of competence.

Conclusion

There it is, my ode to competence. Remember:

1. Competence is a leadership imperative because it is both magnetic and infectious

2. To cultivate competence focus on documentation of standards, quality, and consistency

3. Above all else, do your job

4. Treat that job as a craft you intend to master