People who know what they do not know tend to have the following attributes. They tend to be confident and sure of themselves. They tend to have high self esteem, andbecause of this they do not feel the need to be right all the time. They tend to be more open to people helping them or willing to admit they need help because they do not know everything. They work well on a team. These people know they have skills, so they do not feel the need to constantlytry to prove things to other people. People who know what they know realize they are not always going to be the smartest person in the room, and they are ok with this because they are always open to learning from others. They are confident enough to give up control if it makes better sense. They know their strengths and weaknesses very well, and they tend to be smart, effective, open, and focused primarily getting the job done knowing they will get the accolades if they do great work.
People who do not know what they know on the other hand tend to have doubts. They tend to have lower self esteem. They often feel in over their head. They feel like they lack something required to really be able to get the job done. These people tend to circle the wagons when it comes to their job. What I mean by this is they often go out of their way not to give up control. Giving up control means the possibility someone will come and do it better than them. That someone will figure out they are not skilled enough to do what they have been asked to do. That someone else may have better ideas. They do not see better ideas as a chance to learn and improve. They see better ideas as a threat. They confuse control with power, and even when given power or authority they make decisions based on how the outcome will affect them verses how the outcome will affect the company they work for. They tend to be lazy at times, and not willing to do the extra work required to get the job done right. This is why they lack the skills to effectively do their job and gain confidence. They only team players up to the point they feel good about the project. Once the project looks like it will expose their lack of skills or even worse someone else on the project team is going to expose their lack of skills, they can tend to turn the team concept off quickly and go into protect my turf mode.
Now that we know the worl is really possibly broken down inot two types of people you need to ask yourself the key questions:
- Which type of person am I?
- How is this effecting my job and life?
- How can I fix this?
I will close with a very simple thought. I am willing to bet that the people who are making the big money, getting the raises, and really moving up in your company are the people who know what they do not know.
www.TopSuccessSite.com is the number one website for success advice. Feel free to e-mail me your thoughts or questions on this topic. You can reach me at jmoore@topsuccesssite.com.
