Surface Ripples

The “3 CS” of Career Development

The “3 CS” are a concept developed by consultant Gorick Ng to describe three key areas to the land jobs and further one’s professional career.

To summarise, they stand for:

• Competence
• Commitment
• Compatibility

“Competence” is best described as “can you do the job?” Any lob requires a certain amount of experience and skill (even if it’s very little, such as we might find in a fresh graduate).  

More important, it requires that hard to define quality: “attitude”.  This means a person’s general predisposition towards doing something (or avoiding it).  There’s a famous saying, “hire for attitude, train for skills”, meaning that some people are naturally predisposed to certain jobs.  Examples may be “customer service” people.  They naturally “get” and can empathise with customers and are therefore ideally suited to this role.  Others may not have this predisposition; that doesn’t make them “bad people”, it’s simply means they may be better suited to, say, back office operations where they will shine in managing processes and systems.  We all have different “attitudes” but it’s important to ensure we have the right “attitude” for the right job as well.

“Commitment” is that blend of energy and enthusiasm for a particular job. How “hungry” are you for it?  Will you quote go the extra mile” to make sure something is done and done well (this may also come under “attitude” above)?  One of the more interesting ways an employer might test a job applicants’ “commitment” is to ask, “what do you know about our organisation?”  If the applicant knows nothing, they clearly weren’t committed enough to do even basic research.

“Compatibility” means “are you someone we can work with?” I’ve seen complaints in our local paper where the writer commented that they couldn’t get a job despite being the “best qualified” candidate out there.  Here, the problem may have been that whilst they were indeed the “best qualified”, they weren’t a nice person!

When someone encounters a hold in their career, it may be due to one or more of the Cs above. Experience and anecdotes from others suggest address that it’s mainly around the “commitment” and compatibility” areas.  I’ve certainly experienced a case where, once a boss had cause not to believe in somebody’s commitment, that person became incompatible with them.

My view?  It ends up being a “two-way street”. Employees and employers use the “3 Cs” as a framework for development of careers and teams. 

I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. 

Labels: Career, Leadership, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 08:13