5 Ways to Develop Competence to Be a Better Achiever

Things That Will Lead to Improved Performance and Achievements

4 min readJun 21, 2019

Having effective ways to develop competence can help us improve our performance and become better achievers.

As we give more attention to developing competence in any area, we’ll create better results.

What is Competence?

Competence is the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. It means we can do something well.

Having competence means having adequate knowledge and skills to carry out a task. Competence on a task means having the ability to think and behave that will lead to the successful execution of that task.

The Benefits of Developing Competence

When we develop competence in areas important to us, the benefits will include:

Having greater levels of confidence.
Completing tasks quicker or more efficiently.
Making fewer mistakes which means we need less time to finish a task.
Lower chance of compromising our safety.
Becoming more knowledgeable and informed.
Improving our chances of taking advantage of opportunities.

As we learn ways to develop competence in any area, we’ll not only benefit ourselves, we’ll also benefit others.

An area I wanted to develop competence in was writing. Initially, I wanted to learn to write fiction, so I enrolled in an online writing class to improve my skills. What I learned helped me write my several books over the past decade.

Writing articles or blog posts for websites was another area I wanted to have more competence. Therefore, I took online classes and learned from different writers and bloggers. That has helped me create consistent new content weekly and I’ve now published hundreds of articles online.

Developing competence isn’t difficult if we know what needs to be done.

5 Ways to Develop Competence For New Results

Here are five ways to develop competence to create new results and become a better achiever.

Identify areas of improvement or skills you want to develop. Having a goal is the starting point. This includes defining what success is for us, relevant to that area or skill. Once the goal is defined, we can conduct research, attend classes and learn from others to develop competence.
Join dedicated networks or groups. Having the right network is important. For example, if we want to develop writing skills, it’s valuable to join writing groups and spend time with other writers. Most times, leveraging the knowledge and experience of others is the quickest way to develop competence.
Challenge yourself through practice and action. An effective way to develop competence is through doing. The more we practice something, the more familiar it will become. This also can mean it will be easier to do it successfully after a period of time.
Ask for feedback consistently. We won’t know how we’re doing if we don’t track our progress. This is where having someone who can hold us accountable and provide constructive feedback is valuable.
Teach what you are learning. It’s been said when we teach something, we get to learn it twice. Teaching what we’re learning will require us to confirm we know what we’re sharing. It will also provide opportunities to enhance our understanding of the task or skill we want to improve.

Conclusion

Having competence in something means we can use it to achieve a new result or create a better experience. If we focus on developing competence, we’ll feel more confident to achieve the results we want.

If we don’t develop competence, we risk making mistakes and can take much longer to achieve what’s important.

Action Step: Choose one skill you would like to develop more competence in. Identify two people who can help you develop competence in that area. It can include enrolling in an online class or attending a workshop. Do this within the next week and start developing competence in that area.

Question: What are more ways to develop competence to be a better achiever?