Source Articles:  https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/competence-vs-competency & https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/levels-of-competence.

In professional settings, it’s often important to understand the meanings of similar words so you may comprehend or communicate more clearly with peers and supervisors. An example of this is the difference between the word “competence” and “competency.” Learning how to identify the similarities and differences between these words may help you understand the importance of paying attention to details in communication. In this article, we discuss the definitions of competence vs. competency and some key differences between these two terms that may help you better understand how to use or interpret them.

What is competence?

Competence is your ability to generally understand and perform anything at a basic level. This refers to your knowledge and general state of being. Competence typically involves skills related to learning and comprehension. It also includes the standards for measuring skills or knowledge. For example, a basic spelling test typically measures your basic ability, or competence, to spell commonly used words.

Competence also refers to your ability to comprehend actions or knowledge throughout different parts of life. This means competence occurs at various stages of life as you grow older, learn new things, meet new people and experience new environments. This also includes understanding the basic responsibilities or requirements for operating at each stage in your life or career.

What is competency?

In business vocabulary, competency refers to your ability to perform a specific task in which someone has trained you. Some people may use the term as another word for “professional skill.” For example, you would have competency in coding after earning a degree in computer science or training in a new job position at a software engineering company. Competency may also refer to the behavior itself and how one achieves those abilities. Someone can achieve multiple competencies after training or studying in a certain area or company.

Competency also refers to your general ability to function in front of a courtroom. This includes having the mental and emotional capacity to stand trial. For example, someone who faces mental challenges may not have the competency to understand the proceedings of a trial. This means that if they’re the defendant in a case, the court may require them to undergo different treatment, such as mental health hospitals instead of criminal institutions.

Competence vs. competency

Here are a few distinct differences between these two terms:

How vs. what

When someone refers to a person’s competence, they’re typically referring to what the person knows or their general knowledge about a specific subject. When someone refers to a person’s competency or competencies, they’re typically referring to the person’s skills or actions, referring to how the person achieves competence. For example, a person achieves competence in riding a bike by gaining competencies in balance, coordination and physical stamina.

Knowledge vs. actions

Competence is a general state of knowledge or understanding of something. This means someone usually performs an action to achieve this knowledge. People may refer to competencies as actions because they’re referring to the skills or performance of someone in a particular situation. For example, a childcare worker may be competent in caregiving techniques. This means they have the knowledge and skills required to perform their jobs and take care of children. The childcare worker demonstrates their competency by revealing their ability to perform those skills, such as using calming techniques to soothe an upset child.

Professional vs. general references

Professionals often use the words competency or competencies more often than people in general environments because they use the words to refer to specific training and behavior relevant to the jobs. The words often describe the behavior or training that a person learned to achieve a standard. People in general environments typically use the word competent more often because the word refers to an average person’s capabilities and knowledge of a general task. This can refer to any general task, while professionals often use the word competency to refer to advanced training.

Level of skill

Competency and competence also vary by their meanings when referencing a level of skill. Competence means the basic ability of someone to perform actions. This means they perform the actions as well as the average person. Competency means the more advanced ability and skills of a person when they perform a task. This means they perform the task better than the average person, or a person with basic competence. This may also refer to the behavior of the person performing the task, such as the training they’ve received to perform the action as well as they can.

General references vs. courtroom references

In a legal setting, competency refers to the ability of someone to actively participate in and understand the proceedings of a trial. This may apply to defendants, prosecutors, witnesses and jury members. If someone is mentally unfit for trial, the court may refer to them as “legally incompetent.” Officials may refer to people who face minimal or no mental challenges as mentally competent and fit to stand trial. General audiences outside of a courtroom rarely use the word competency in this way.

Four stages of competence with examples

Here is an in-depth look at the four stages of competence and examples of what each might look like in the workplace.

1. Unconscious incompetence
2. Conscious incompetence
3. Conscious competence
4. Unconscious competence

1. Unconscious incompetence

This is the stage where you don’t yet know the degree of your incompetence. In other words, you don’t know what you don’t know. This stage is generally the most challenging, as you are unconscious of the fact that there are areas that need improvement or things you need to learn. People in this stage can’t recognize problems as they occur, so they generally don’t ask for help.An example of this is if you ask a member of your team to create a series of articles for a client and optimize them to rank well in Google. The team member thinks that they’re performing the task correctly and doesn’t know to ask for guidance. It isn’t until you see the result that you realize they received improper training and that the articles will have to be rewritten.

2. Conscious incompetence

This is where you start to develop an awareness of what you don’t know. This stage can be uncomfortable because you must acknowledge your shortcomings. However, recognizing your shortcomings also motivates you to move forward and learn the skill so you can move beyond this stage as quickly as possible.Continuing with the example from stage one, after reviewing the assignment with the member of your team and showing examples of what the article should have looked like, the team member moves into the consciously incompetent stage. They are aware that they haven’t learned the strategies to optimize an article for search engines, but because they are conscious of the mistakes, they now undertake measures to learn the skills.

3. Conscious competence

After dedicating yourself to the improvement of a skill through formal training, repeated practice and participation, competence grows and starts to show. At this stage, you have learned and practiced enough to perform a task with a degree of quality and independence. The task does take focus and attention that makes you slower than it would for someone more skilled. There is also a performance risk from distractions and possibly deadline pressure. In other words, if you lose your focus, your ability to perform the task may suffer. In this stage, your team member has developed the skills to write the articles and optimize them for Google search results. However, they are still relying on a checklist to ensure they don’t miss anything, and they have to remain focused to be most successful at the task.

4. Unconscious competence

In this final stage, you have now internalized the knowledge you need to perform a task and perfected your practical skills. You also no longer require concentration or active thought. You can complete the required tasks with ease and speed. You are also capable of mentoring team members who are in an earlier stage of the learning model.When your team member has reached this stage, they have mastered writing for search results and can do so with ease. They understand the advanced strategies to be successful at the task and are training other team members to help them. 

How to move successfully through the four stages of competence

Here are some strategies you can use to move yourself and others through the competence cycle successfully.

1. Unconscious incompetence strategies
2. Conscious incompetence strategies
3. Conscious competence strategies
4. Unconscious competence strategies

1. Unconscious incompetence strategies

Because this can be the most challenging stage to get out of, it takes a conscious effort to get out of it. The best solution for advancing beyond this stage is to practice awareness. Constant awareness, over time, will help move you through the stages. When you are performing a new task, ask for feedback throughout the process. If it’s possible to see great examples of similar, completed work, ask to see them. The key is to move rapidly from unconscious to conscious incompetence because once you have reached conscious incompetence, you can obtain the training you need to learn the skill.A personal SWOT analysis, evaluating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can help. It organizes them into a list and typically presents them in a simple two-by-two grid. A SWOT analysis helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses to understand which strengths you need to learn and improve upon.Make sure that your skills align with your personal or work goals. If you’re a leader who’s coaching others, be sensitive at this early stage. Your team members may not understand how much they must learn or how unskilled they are. Give plenty of positive feedback to keep motivation high.

2. Conscious incompetence strategies

In this stage, you become aware of what you don’t know, so the solution is to acquire knowledge to move as quickly as possible to the conscious competence stage. Meet with a coworker who can teach you the skill, take online or in-person training, read books, listen to podcasts or attend seminars. If you are in a leadership role and you need to improve high-level leadership skills, you may want to consider hiring a coach who can help you obtain those skills more rapidly.If you are a leader who’s coaching a team member, provide lots of encouragement and support to combat negative thinking, improve confidence and refocus energy.

3. Conscious competence strategies

Because in this stage, you are competent in a task or ability, the key to moving beyond this stage is deliberate practice, ideally with someone who has mastered the skill and can provide guidance.If you’re coaching others, help keep your team members focused on the skills they need to learn and give them opportunities to practice those skills.

4. Unconscious competence strategies

In this stage, you have mastered the skill and you have become unconscious in your technique. To remain at this stage, the destination, you should continue to deliberately practice the skill. The practice of learning will never end so it’s important to constantly refine your skill.If you’re coaching others, help your team members to avoid complacency and stay up-to-date on their skills. Encourage them to use checklists and formal procedures so they think about what they’re doing as they perform important tasks. Encourage them to seek opportunities to further improve their skills.