Dealing with incompetence at work place can be quite frustrating. Incompetency can work both ways, employees might find their bosses incompetent while the same applies vice versa. Before further dwelling into this article, let’s keep an open mind and stir away the anger we have inside. Anger and judgement always get the better of you while trying to understand a colleague or boss.
Instead, look at the situation from a calm point of view. This will help you to be able to better analyse the situation and come up with better solutions.
Incompetence can stem from various reasons.
- Coherence and understanding
- Lack of communication or insufficient communication
- Lack of motivation
Communication and Coherence
While one may have thought that you have delivered or allotted work very efficiently, it is not always the case. Similarly, when communicating with a boss, employees believe that they have effectively conveyed a message only for it to backfire, plus you don’t have to deal with incompetence anymore.
So what can be done?
For Bosses – Make coherence top priority, not everyone’s coherence level is the same, and so it can become frustrating overtime to see tasks being done inefficiently. Keep communication simple, and always dig in deep. Give details as much as possible, outline every task, clearly and crisply.
For employees – When you feel that you didn’t understand something that has been conveyed or if there is confusion, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Even the slightest confusion can lead you to disaster. Store away that shy/introvert behaviour in a box locked away and ask relevant and clear questions to your doubts.
Lack of communication or insufficient communication
While coherence is the most important factor affecting incompetence, lack of communication or clarity can be the next big one.
Lack of communication and giving out the correct instructions at the right time can all lead to incompetency. For instance if you don’t continuously communicate while a task is on-going and wait for it to finish before any communication takes place, you will be wasting time that could have been saved by communicating mid way through the task.
So what can be done here?
For Bosses – keep a tab on what your employees are doing, don’t let them be headless sheep that doesn’t know whom to follow or where to go. Be patient when employees ask questions, though you might have better coherence on the subject because of years of experience, the same can not be said for someone who just joined the industry.
For Employees – Don’t be afraid of asking questions whenever in doubt. It is better to ask a question while you are doing a task, than when you have finished it. Be fearless and communicate issues, problems, etc clearly to your management. They are there to help. Take help.
Lack of motivation
This one majorly goes for the bosses out there. Your employee can be unmotivated, for plenty of reasons. You have to create a working environment that makes employees feel energetic. Lack of motivation can cause your employees to under perform or look incompetent.
What can you do?
For Bosses – create an environment where your employee feels energetic and is happy. Employees under perform because of underlying issues, narrow down the issue and address it with them. Let them know that they are supported and understood.
So if you think that people are incompetent, look inward, are you providing all the information they need? Is that information being understood? How well is the communication? After looking at all these points if someone still seems incompetent. FIRE THEM. Lol Just kidding, don’t. I am sure after these tips your relationships at work will be much better. Ciao.