Chapter three

Competent professionals

A competence: What is it, really? Or, to put it another way, what is a competent professional? Quite a few books have been written about these two questions using highly complex theories – now and then based on thorough scientific studies. But it does not have to be that difficult. Actually, it is very simple:

• A competent professional is someone you will ask to do a job for you again.

This is because he or she recently did it in a way you liked.

The competent plumber

In order to imagine how someone like that would act, I thought to myself, let me not start in a way that’s too complicated. No abstract kind of profession that I cannot grasp easily. Instead, I will look at a professional who has a clearly visible task in an environment I know well.

So, as a starting point, I imagined a dramatic situation in my own house. A small catastrophe, an imaginary situation, by the way, not a real one, thank goodness. What has happened? My son, three years old, has – just for fun – been hanging on the bathroom sink, which has completely broken off the wall and is now lying on the floor. My son is all right, but the bathroom less so. The water pipe has shattered into pieces, and now I have a beautiful “fountain” right where I always dreamed of not having one. Water is gushing out! It has already flooded the bathroom floor and the landing and is starting to run down my stairs like a waterfall. My hall and living room are about to turn into a sea. What about me – what do I do? I can think of just one thing to do: panic!

“Call the plumber …” I sigh, and so I do. Later, the plumber arrives. So now, what do you expect he – our plumber is a male – will do, as a competent professional?

The first thing he does is eliminate the immediate cause of my problem, making sure that it does not get any worse. That is to say, he needs to find the main water supply line and turn the shut-off valve handle. And he definitely should not ask me where this handle is, for I am panicking right now. All of a sudden, I don’t know anything anymore. So, the good man has to know, all on his own, where he has the biggest chance of finding the shut-off valve: in this case, downstairs under the doormat by my front door. Without hesitation, he lifts the mat, removes the wooden panel, and shuts off the main water line. Well, that’s something.

The second thing he does is calm me down so that I can contribute something useful. So he starts talking to me, telling me things like: “Look, it isn’t really so bad. It’s clean water after all. We will fix it. Now, if you could get me a couple of buckets and some towels, I will …” et cetera. It is reassuring when he does that. My mind clears a little, and my sense returns.

Only after this has been done, the plumber will go upstairs, equipped with the necessary tools, where he will start doing the things you would expect primarily from a person like him. So he will “plumb,” or whatever it may accurately be called, and start repairing the water pipe and the sink.

What he actually did

Look, someone who acts in such a calm, competent way is definitely a professional. And, he did much more than just the technical stuff you might associate first when you think of his profession. In his first act in this terrible situation, his role was primarily that of a disaster fighter. His action, his achievement, was to shut off the main water line. In doing this, he made use of his architectural insight regarding how houses in my country are usually constructed. At that moment, the tool he used was his architectural insight. In his second achievement, calming me down and giving me some directions, he acted in a very different role, that of an aid worker. The tool he used this time was his knowledge of people.

Only in his third role, he performed as a technician when he started repairing. For this, I guess, he used tools such as pipe wrenches and a soldering torch.

Context, roles, achievements, and tools

C ontext, roles, achievement, and tools – these together define competences. I will give you a brief overview.

• Context:
• Inundation in my bathroom

• Role #1:
• Disaster fighter

• Achievement:
• Find main water line and turn it off

• Tool:
• Architectural insight

• Role #2:
• Aid worker

• Achievement:
• Calm people down, give directions

• Tool:
• Knowledge of people

• Role #3:
• Technician

• Achievement:
• Repair broken sink

• Tools:
• Pipe wrenches, soldering torch, etc.

In my catastrophe scenario, the plumber established three different competences, and at the right moment, he shifted fluently from one role to another. This wonderful example – it is almost a shame it did not really happen – provides answers for the two questions this chapter started with.

A person who has proved being able to do that – that’s someone you will ask to do a job for you again.

What about you? In what kind of context do you usually work, and which roles are demanded from you there? Have you ever been a disaster fighter, an aid worker, a technician, or something else? Which tools to you possess? And above all which achievement are you proud of?