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Basic work competencies are fourteen competent ways of performing in independent activities, leading others, collaborating, planning and solving problems and viewing the world and oneself (see preceding lesson on Basic work competencies). They may be expressed as twenty relatable "Experts in work", from a Quality seeker to an Optimist.
Basic competencies derive from people's characteristic motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes developing earlier in life and being more stable in time than occupational and job specific competencies. But most of all, they guide all educational, occupational and job specific competence. Whatever work you do or plan to do, basic competencies function as a direction and path providers but also as limitation imposers. Therefore, it makes good sense to pose oneself the question: who am I at work?
Answer to the question who I am in ACTION becomes clarified by examining experts such as Quality vs. Results seekers, Action vs. Thought leaders, Socializers, Advisors of others, Listeners to others and Followers of one's own path. Answer to the question who I am in PLANNING and problem solving gets clarified through examining the corresponding experts, ie., Fact-based individuals vs. Idea generators, viewers of the Practical vs. the Complex picture, Analytic vs. Intuitive thinkers and Cautious vs. Quick implementers. The satisfying WORK ENVIRONMENT to oneself is clarified by examining the proponents of Order vs. Variety. Expertise in success expectancies is represented both by Realists and Optimists. From all the experts, choose the most characteristic of yourself with this PDF document.
People draw a portrait of themselves by choosing from three competence areas - action, planning and problem solving, work environment and viewing - expert figures most relatable to themselves based on their attached descriptions. From action and planning and problem solving, the choice is made on the most and the second most relatable expert figure. As reflective of the suitable work environment and mirroring one's success expectancies, the choice is made on either of the two alternative experts. Finally, the choices may be recorded on the summary page of the form.
Personified, easily relatable expert figures arouse people's interest to self-examination much better than diverse attribute listings. Obviously, choosing the experts involves focusing on intricate but important discriminations. Namely, all the figures represent highly valued experts in work life's diverse educational and information environments, occupations and jobs while being all but equally socially desirable.
Choice making results in a profile of the person's most important basic competencies understandable to him/herself. For a comprehensive picture of competence, existing or planned educational, occupational and job specific competencies, guided by the basic competencies, are mapped out primarily by oneself. However, this can also be aided by conversational artificial intelligence (eg., ChatGPT). As continuance to choice making one may request a trained coach for a feedback session on the choices.
Self-performed choice making is often sufficient in clarifying the person's current state and future directions in his/her career and competence. As continuation to the choices one can fill out the standardized WOPI test of 224 questions widely used in recruitment. The six chosen expert figures form only the "tip of the iceberg" while WOPI testing covers all the twenty expert figures. For a comprehensive picture it may be useful to illuminate the non-chosen but potentially important expert figures and those wholly rejected by the person. The test's detailed character has another benefit. Namely, WOPI produces numerical scores on all expert figures, thereby adding precision to the big picture. The main attention is directed on divergencies from the person's own midline profile while comparison to other people is evident in the profile's absolute scores.
In the big picture, self-performed choices coincide well with the test results confirming thus the validity of the corresponding basic competencies. However, the interesting specifications brought about by the test's detailed character can be truly useful. For example, an individual's self-performed choice may indicate identification with Intuitive thinkers, the competence value of whom is the production of creative solutions. But, according to the test, the individual's score reaches only the halfpoint between analytic and intuitive thinking. Instead, the person reaches a high score on Idea generation, the competence value of which is production of new ideas. All in all, the testing phase may bring "cold showers" on the person but it may as well illuminate competencies that the person was totally unaware of.
Often the self-image built from self-performed expert choices is influenced by idealized pictures of oneself and social desirability of the choices. Therefore, marked differences between the choices and test results can in an important way illuminate the "ultimate truth". The test results are however not given a truth criterion status but the goal is to lead to ponderings upon the reasons for such differences. As with the self-performed choices it is useful to discuss the results of the testing phase with a trained coach.
Self-awareness brings also significant value to organizations. The consultant company Korn & Ferry (2015) mapped out the "blind spots" among nearly 7000 professionals in 486 listed companies, comparing them to the company's stock value. Blind spots were defined as gaps between the professionals' self-reports on their core competencies and reports given by their co-workers. The companies with highest rate of return showed significantly less blind spots among their professionals. According to a blog published in Harvard Business Review in 2018, self-awareness helps leaders more than an MBA (HBR 2018). An article by Rubens and colleagues (2018) instructs in implementing self-awareness training in MBA programs.
Who am I - 20 Experts in work
Immanuel Kant wrote that self knowledge is to know one's heart and understand the motives behind one's actions. Experts in work answer the question: who am I at work. Experts are personified figures driven by motives, ways of thinking and attitudes with characteristic ways of acting, planning, solving problems and viewing the world and oneself. They guide both the young and old, staff and leaders toward educational and information environments, occupations and jobs where one can feel satisfaction and give one's best contribution.
20 Experts in work
Basic work competencies are fourteen competent ways of performing in independent activities, leading others, collaborating, planning and solving problems and viewing the world and oneself (see preceding lesson on Basic work competencies). They may be expressed as twenty relatable "Experts in work", from a Quality seeker to an Optimist.
Basic competencies derive from people's characteristic motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes developing earlier in life and being more stable in time than occupational and job specific competencies. But most of all, they guide all educational, occupational and job specific competence. Whatever work you do or plan to do, basic competencies function as a direction and path providers but also as limitation imposers. Therefore, it makes good sense to pose oneself the question: who am I at work?
Answer to the question who I am in ACTION becomes clarified by examining experts such as Quality vs. Results seekers, Action vs. Thought leaders, Socializers, Advisors of others, Listeners to others and Followers of one's own path. Answer to the question who I am in PLANNING and problem solving gets clarified through examining the corresponding experts, ie., Fact-based individuals vs. Idea generators, viewers of the Practical vs. the Complex picture, Analytic vs. Intuitive thinkers and Cautious vs. Quick implementers. The satisfying WORK ENVIRONMENT to oneself is clarified by examining the proponents of Order vs. Variety. Expertise in success expectancies is represented both by Realists and Optimists. From all the experts, choose the most characteristic of yourself with this PDF document.
Self-performed Expert choices - self-image
People draw a portrait of themselves by choosing from three competence areas - action, planning and problem solving, work environment and viewing - expert figures most relatable to themselves based on their attached descriptions. From action and planning and problem solving, the choice is made on the most and the second most relatable expert figure. As reflective of the suitable work environment and mirroring one's success expectancies, the choice is made on either of the two alternative experts. Finally, the choices may be recorded on the summary page of the form.
Personified, easily relatable expert figures arouse people's interest to self-examination much better than diverse attribute listings. Obviously, choosing the experts involves focusing on intricate but important discriminations. Namely, all the figures represent highly valued experts in work life's diverse educational and information environments, occupations and jobs while being all but equally socially desirable.
Choice making results in a profile of the person's most important basic competencies understandable to him/herself. For a comprehensive picture of competence, existing or planned educational, occupational and job specific competencies, guided by the basic competencies, are mapped out primarily by oneself. However, this can also be aided by conversational artificial intelligence (eg., ChatGPT). As continuance to choice making one may request a trained coach for a feedback session on the choices.
WOPI testing
Self-performed choice making is often sufficient in clarifying the person's current state and future directions in his/her career and competence. As continuation to the choices one can fill out the standardized WOPI test of 224 questions widely used in recruitment. The six chosen expert figures form only the "tip of the iceberg" while WOPI testing covers all the twenty expert figures. For a comprehensive picture it may be useful to illuminate the non-chosen but potentially important expert figures and those wholly rejected by the person. The test's detailed character has another benefit. Namely, WOPI produces numerical scores on all expert figures, thereby adding precision to the big picture. The main attention is directed on divergencies from the person's own midline profile while comparison to other people is evident in the profile's absolute scores.
In the big picture, self-performed choices coincide well with the test results confirming thus the validity of the corresponding basic competencies. However, the interesting specifications brought about by the test's detailed character can be truly useful. For example, an individual's self-performed choice may indicate identification with Intuitive thinkers, the competence value of whom is the production of creative solutions. But, according to the test, the individual's score reaches only the halfpoint between analytic and intuitive thinking. Instead, the person reaches a high score on Idea generation, the competence value of which is production of new ideas. All in all, the testing phase may bring "cold showers" on the person but it may as well illuminate competencies that the person was totally unaware of.
Often the self-image built from self-performed expert choices is influenced by idealized pictures of oneself and social desirability of the choices. Therefore, marked differences between the choices and test results can in an important way illuminate the "ultimate truth". The test results are however not given a truth criterion status but the goal is to lead to ponderings upon the reasons for such differences. As with the self-performed choices it is useful to discuss the results of the testing phase with a trained coach.
Self awareness for organizations
Self-awareness brings also significant value to organizations. The consultant company Korn & Ferry (2015) mapped out the "blind spots" among nearly 7000 professionals in 486 listed companies, comparing them to the company's stock value. Blind spots were defined as gaps between the professionals' self-reports on their core competencies and reports given by their co-workers. The companies with highest rate of return showed significantly less blind spots among their professionals. According to a blog published in Harvard Business Review in 2018, self-awareness helps leaders more than an MBA (HBR 2018). An article by Rubens and colleagues (2018) instructs in implementing self-awareness training in MBA programs.
Korn & Ferry on Self-awareness (2015). https://www.kornferry.com/press/korn-ferry-institute-study-shows-link-between-self-awareness-and-company-financial-performance.
HBR on Self-awareness (2018). https://hbr.org/2018/01/self-awareness-can-help-leaders-more-than-an-mba-can.
Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G.A., Schaffer, B.S. & Leah, J.S. (2018). Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The International Journal of Management Education. 16, 1-13.
HBR on Self-awareness (2018). https://hbr.org/2018/01/self-awareness-can-help-leaders-more-than-an-mba-can.
Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G.A., Schaffer, B.S. & Leah, J.S. (2018). Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The International Journal of Management Education. 16, 1-13.
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