'Conscious Competence' Is the Key to Growth and Leadership.

• Author: Turvill, Ian

Those of you with a background in psychology may know of a model of personal development called the "Four Stages of Learning."

In the first stage, dubbed "unconscious incompetence," an individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit.

The second stage--"conscious incompetence" --involves recognizing that a skill gap exists and that it would be valuable to close it.

In the third stage of "conscious competence," an individual demonstrating a skill can describe what is required to perform, but may require significant concentration to execute it successfully.

When an individual reaches the fourth stage of "unconscious competence," the skill has become second nature.

Many members of LMA have a high level of unconscious competence in many areas. They have built their skills through education, training, experience, feedback and coaching.

Paradoxically perhaps, the purpose of LMA's BOK is to turn the clock back and help our members recall and understand the skills during the conscious competence phase. For example, in the "Business of Law" domain, the BOK has an inventory of eight specific competencies, such as "Business Structures and Trends" and "Firm Practice Strategy and Planning."

These competencies are broken down to an even higher level of granularity. Thus, a marketer who is competent in "Strategy and Planning" will know, among other things, how to establish a capacity for firm-wide strategic planning and how to convert a broad strategy into a marketing plan for a practice group or attorney.

Why Do This?

First, until now, there has been no single...