Unconscious Incompetence: At this stage, a person doesn't know what they don't know. For instance, someone who's never played a musical instrument might not realize how challenging it is to read music or coordinate their hands to play.
Conscious Incompetence: Here, the individual becomes aware of their lack of skill or knowledge in a specific area. For example, someone starting to learn coding might realize they struggle with understanding complex algorithms.
Conscious Competence: This stage involves actively developing skills. An example could be a beginner learning a new language and slowly becoming more proficient by practicing vocabulary and grammar regularly.
Unconscious Competence: This phase involves mastery where skills become almost automatic. For instance, a skilled driver might not consciously think about each step while driving but does everything automatically.
Reflective Competence: Some models add this stage, where the individual not only performs tasks skillfully but also reflects on and refines their abilities continually. This might be seen in someone who excels in a particular video game, continuously seeking new strategies and improving their gameplay.
These stages illustrate how someone progresses from not knowing about a skill to mastering it, which can apply to various areas from learning new technologies to mastering hobbies or sports.
Related to Sales
Unconscious Incompetence (Not Knowing What You Don't Know): Starting out in sales, you might not realize the depth of sales skills needed, like understanding customer needs or effective negotiation.
Conscious Incompetence (Realising What You Need to Learn): As you progress, you start seeing gaps in your skills, such as struggling with closing deals or handling objections.
Conscious Competence (Learning and Practicing): Actively working on improving sales skills by attending training and practicing different sales approaches to engage customers better.
Unconscious Competence (Becoming Naturally Skilled): With practice, sales techniques become more automatic. You naturally navigate conversations, build relationships, and close sales without constant conscious effort.
Reflective Competence (Continuously Improving): Experienced sales professionals not only perform well but also regularly review and refine their strategies, seeking feedback and adapting to new challenges.
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5 Stages of Learning