It is important to identify core competencies!

For me, the purpose of life consists in expressing my individual essence and full potential – that which constitutes me – as best I can. And in the best-case scenario, also thereby achieving a contribution to the big picture, to society, to an organization, to a team. From my point of view, if I can manage that, then my purpose in life has been fairly well fulfilled.

But how do you get there? How do you uncover your peculiar capabilities and qualities? Many people are not even aware of their core skills or what makes them truly unique. For this reason, I like to use a very simple 3-step process to heighten cognizance of these things.

More self-knowledge in 3 simple steps

1. Looking back: Who am I and where do I come from?

The ancient Greeks already knew the importance of the question, “Who am I?” Above the entrance to the Apollo Temple in Delphi stood the inscription “Know thyself.”

Casting a look back at your own biography primarily means directing your view toward your successes and achievements to date. And not only in the professional environment, but also and especially outside of your professional activities – attained by getting up each morning, going out into the world, and solving problems. We develop about 70% of our skills outside of school, or further training, or seminars. We develop them in our free time.

My tip: Make a list of your successes to date. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are all of the things that I have achieved so far in my life?
• Which problems and challenges have I successfully dealt with?
• What competencies have I developed through this?

Don’t just list the obvious things that are readily recognizable as successes. Rather, make a thorough list that also includes what may be referred to as failures, setbacks, or situations that you would not identify as successes at first glance. A great many qualities and skills become apparent precisely when dealing with these situations. Because this is what the next step is about.

2. Create a competency profile: What am I capable of doing?

When you have completed your list of successes, take one of those successes and zoom in to analyze it in accordance with the following questions:

• What was the situation or challenge?
• What did I do to manage or solve it? What was my contribution?
• What came out of this process?

Prepare a competency profile of yourself and establish what you are capable of. Write down which qualities, characteristics, and skills are apparent to you. In doing this, it can help to take on an external perspective and consider: which abilities and qualities in this person would I attest to? We are often quite unaware of our own strengths, because we inherently perceive them as self-evident.

Repeat this step – the qualities, traits, and skills that come up again and again provide significant clues about your core qualities and core competencies. This is how you find an answer to the questions “Who am I?” and “Who have I become as a result of these experiences?”

3. Looking forward: Where do I want to go now?

With this competency profile, with the clarity that has been gained regarding your uniqueness and your contribution, it also becomes much easier to look forward into the future. Now ask yourself these questions:

• Where do I want to go with this now?
• Where does my path lead to?
• Where do I want to make my contribution – ideally, where do I want to express my potential as best as I can in the future?

Questions about likes and dislikes are a part of this, as is the question of one’s ideal environment.

So, consider what you need, ideally, in order to best be able to put forth your potential. This includes for example company size, industry, corporate culture, etc. It might be easier to do this if you think of a flower in a garden: what does the flower need in order to bloom to its fullest? It needs ideal conditions such as sufficient water, light, the right temperature, and fertile soil. So, consider which garden you need in order to be able to bloom to your fullest.

Living up to your full existing potential

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This quote from the well-known French poet and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is very much in line with this “process of making aware.” Because, for many people, the question is not which additional abilities and traits they must still acquire in order to grow into the next step of their personal development. Rather, the question is about already existing potential that is not yet being lived up to!

Regaining a clear view

The process is a clearing away of the debris that blinds us from seeing what is already there. And it is an expression of that which wants to be lived out. You can also think of this as a snake shedding its skin. Somewhere along the line, the skin becomes too tight. At some point, the old skin must be split open and pushed away. This is a figurative way of expressing that at some point you let go of your conditioning and your old convictions and dogmas. These might be preventing you from moving to the next level of your personal development, from letting go, from parting company with them, and tossing them overboard.

If you succeed in this process, you will be well on your way toward a further stage of your entirely personal journey. I hope that, with this impetus, you will increase your personal effectiveness and really take off.