?Selling worth doing is worth doing badly ? at first!? ~ Gavin Ingham Ben Banogu Jersey , 2002
Have you ever wanted to learn something new but just found it too difficult? Or started something but gave up because you just couldn't get the hang of it? Or maybe you just find the thought of ringing new clients far too scary? Perhaps you sometimes get great results but don't know what you're doing differently? Could you be stuck in your ways?
If any of these could possibly be true then this article is for you.
Everyone would agree that the ability to learn, understand and utilise new information, strategies and behaviours is important particularly with a topic such as sales where you may well have tried before with limited success. In order to help this process it is important to understand the learning process itself and the stages through which we develop new skills, behaviours or attitudes.
Whenever we learn anything new we go through 5 steps.
Sometimes we will do this so quickly that we may be unaware of the process whereas other times we may be made much more aware of the process by our emotions. Understanding this process Rock Ya-Sin Jersey , why we do it, the pitfalls and the strengths will allow you to maximise your learning capabilities.
Step 1) Unconscious Incompetence. You are unaware of what you don't know. You don't know all that you don't know!
Step 2) Conscious Incompetence. You become aware of what you don't know. You're ignorant and you know you are!
Step 3) Conscious Competence. You become aware of how to do things properly. You can do something but you have to be concentrating on it.
Step 4) Unconscious Competence. You are unaware of how you do things you know. You do things without even thinking about it!
I think one of the best ways to really understand this process is to consider a specific situation such as learning to drive. Do you remember learning to drive? I think that most of us do! It was for most of us a fairly sizeable landmark in our lives so it tends to stick in our memories! I certainly remember learning to drive! Like most teenage lads it meant a lot to me ? freedom, adulthood and sex appeal!
On my 17th birthday I dragged my mother out to the car and hopped in to have a go. I knew that I would be able to drive! I had been watching others for months in preparation ? this was going to be easy! How unconsciously incompetent was I?! I was totally ignorant of how difficult this was actually going to be! Ah well, ignorance is bliss. Easing into the seat I grasped the wheel Malik Hooker Jersey , started the engine, depressed the clutch, punched the accelerator and ? stalled the car! Not deterred I had another go ? same result. Another ? another ? another.
Suddenly I was overtaken by the dawning recognition that this was going to be really difficult and challenging. Welcome to conscious incompetence! Gavin you're useless and you know you are! But I was determined to learn to drive so I persevered and practised. After a lot of heartache and effort I eventually reached the point where, if I could maintain my concentration Darius Leonard Jersey , I was actually quite a proficient driver. Now I don't know if you remember your driving test? I do. There was so much to concentrate on wasn't there! Keeping your hands at 10 to two, mirror, signal, manoeuvre Andrew Luck Jersey , the examiner, the speed limit, the road signs and that's without mentioning the other road users! Remember taking your test and that's probably a fair gauge of conscious competence!
?Now you really go out and learn to drive!? That's what everybody said to me when I passed my test and they weren't wrong. Your whole concept of driving changes. You don't have to focus on every little detail all of the time infact you might not have to think about it all. Have you ever driven somewhere got out the car and thought ? how did I get here? I don't even remember driving here. Welcome to unconscious competence! Fabulous the way that the brain works isn't it!
Being able to operate at unconscious competence clearly has many advantages. We're able to multitask, we generally operate fluidly and easily Peyton Manning Jersey , it's within our comfort zone, it's stress free, it's the way we do things and for most people we spend the vast amount of out lives here. Just think about it for a moment. How many things do you now do that you once had to think about consciously. Walking, talking Cheap Indianapolis Colts Hats , picking things up, bodily awareness, writing, driving are all great examples but we also become unconsciously competent at responding to certain stimulus in certain ways. If I were to walk into your office and say Cheap Indianapolis Colts T-Shirts , ?Right! Time to make 100 cold-calls? you'd probably be unconsciously competent at producing a feeling and a response. Maybe not a very nice one! When a client snarls, ?That's too expensive, you must be having a laugh!? chances are that you will also be unconsciously competent at producing an emotional reaction.
So unconscious competence does have disadvantages too. We are unconscious or unaware of our responses or our behaviours therefore we may gradually change what we are doing and be unaware of it. We may find it very difficult to teach others our skills because we are not aware of how we put them together. Maybe we continue to do things in a way that used to be unconsciously competent but external changes now mean that what we are doing is now wrong. And here's the challenge and the danger of unconscious competence. When does unconscious competence become unconscious incompetence? It's very difficult to say for sure because the one commonality between the two is that we are unconscious!