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Harsh maybe, but I really do feel that in today’s competitive global economy we need to start addressing the fact that we’re ill equipping people for the expectations we have of them if we let sub-par performance go unchecked. Now I recognise that for there to be high performers there must be those who are not and indeed there then exists in-between the two poles a raft of average performers. Interestingly a speaker recently suggested to his audience of business professionals that most people in the room were probably good at what they did, but that being good was the new average. Quite simply he said, “you need to be exceptional, you need to stand out and you need to be very, very good”.

In the past ten or twenty years we’ve propagated at every opportunity from kindergarten through to the boardroom, this idea that doing your best is all you can do. Everyone is a winner if you’ve tried your hardest and thereafter you should just be proud of your efforts.

We increase the debilitating effect of accepting average performance with a social phenomenon known as Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) whereby people of genuine merit are resented, attacked, cut down, or criticised because their talents or achievements elevate them above or distinguish them from their (more average) peers.

I suggest it’s now time to shake off the need to encourage everyone with false praise and recognise the realities of competitive markets. There are winners and losers; there are people who excel and those that don’t. We certainly need to help people identify their place within this sphere and we also need to help them develop (if they want to), but let’s not call everyone a success unless and until they actually succeed.

This one’s an interesting question because as a six year academic graduate myself, I would strongly advocate the need to pursue and attain formal recognition of your skills and abilities. These skills offer business grounding, they offer a learning framework for the future and they offer evidence of your commitment to see a course of learning through to completion. But those six years were quite a few business cycles past and when I reflect now on whether they currently aid me in my day-to-day job I would have to question at least some of the content I studied.

Today more than ever we live in a world that’s pacing itself for a sprint race and without doubt the drivers in attaining formal qualifications have changed substantially to those of past decades. Consider in the past, the essential requirement to hold a degree before any blue chip employer would consider you having the aptitude to work in their computing/technology department. Similarly business and trade qualifications were of a value that appears to be dropping year on year as employers place more significant value now on whether an individual has successfully demonstrated the skill rather than whether a certificate says they have that skill.

The telling marker in this story is perhaps best indicated by the fact that the learning landscape itself has changed. In the past knowledge was passed quite deliberately and structurally from person to person (think teacher, student) but today with all the available mediums this is no longer as doctrine a process.

Always on, self-serve, immediate access, instant gratification are just a few of the catch-phrases which embody the learning environment we now find ourselves within, and if you don’t believe me then go Google it yourself!

So are we beyond the academic measures of the past? Well we know Universities are struggling to fill places as they wrestle with a youth unconvinced of the value proposition for three of four years of degree level study. Perhaps its cyclical and once the learning Institutions create a new, modern approach to meeting the educational needs of today then demand will increase again. Perhaps indeed.

In the meantime for many today it appears more important to achieve the Foursquare Major of Starbucks than it is to hold a bachelor’s degree.

I’m sure we’ve all seen those job advertisements stating 10+ years relevant experience essential. But what does that really mean?
Learning and development models today no longer follow the same linear model they did twenty or even ten years ago. Classroom led training has been supplemented and sometimes replaced wholly by computer based training (CBT). What this has created is an ability for self-paced learning that can be accelerated, paused or protracted to meet the needs of the learner.

And therein lies the dichotomy with the traditional request for years experience when hiring employees. There is a diminishing correlation between the ability or skills of an individual and their likely performance, when based solely on years’ of experience. Put more simply a twenty-one year old who has a passion for a skill and who spends all his or her time bettering their ability with it, is often more capable than a forty-one year old with 10+ years’ work experience. It’s a notion backed by common sense in a lot of ways yet still somewhat perversely, far from commonplace as a method for employers to filter appropriately skilled candidates from the rest.

So what can you do about it?

Well as a recruiter I advise my team to probe for evidence of ability to perform the tasks to the required skill level, irrespective of how long the applicant has been practicing said skill. And for job seekers I’d recommend a strategic approach to any job search that pits your ability to actually do the job verses the employer’s belief in what they think you need to do the job.

Trust me it isn’t easy to change engrained and long-standing beliefs but the times they are changing and if my six year old can use MS Word now then he’ll be well equipped to tackle an office administration role in say two or three years!

I could start by qualifying these comments as specific to a job interview but in fact they’re not, they can actually be applied to any interview situation you face. You see an interview by definition is or should be a two-way flow of information between parties. The key element being the need for everyone involved to gain information from the process, save the interview (at best) be found lacking or (at worst) becoming a complete waste of time.

And in that first paragraph is the key to overcoming nerves for most candidates. Too many interviewees view the interview as a test which they must pass to be successful else fail under the guise of personal rejection!

Take a step back and re-read the first paragraph. The interview may still be a test but it’s a two-way test not one-way. If the interviewer doesn’t impress me with his job, or company information or even his personality then I may not accept his offer should he decide I’m the employee he wants in his business. On the more traditional view If I don’t represent myself in the best light, summing up skills and experience and demonstrating a personality matching what’s being sought, then I’m unlikely to be offered the position on offer.

Now with a more level appreciation of the process that’s taking place in an interview, I’d invite you to refocus your approach to interviews in the future. Sure you should prepare and invest time in performing your best at an interview but only in return for an expectation that your interviewer does the same. When you view the balance of power as equal you are much more likely to relax and perform naturally to your best ability.