Competence Quotes - Page 14

• What is needed is competence first and enthusiasm first. There is nothing second! Although each or one of these alone is a good start, one without the other is impotent. But if I had a choice I would have enthusiasm first.

  Julius Sumner Miller

  Choices, Firsts, Enthusiasm

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• Although our grammar schools are teaching a whole generation computer language to adjust to the technological needs of a Stage II [post survival-focused] society, we have neglected to teach this generation relationship language and conflict resolution skills to address the social and psychological needs of a Stage II society. And when it is taught, in countries like Germany, although called social competence it focuses on workplace teamwork - still on survival, breadwinner oriented work goals.

  Warren Farrell

  Teamwork, Country, Teaching

  "Father and Child Reunion". Book by Warren Farrell, 2001.

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• Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm.

  Leo Strauss

  Philosophy, Humble, Men

  Leo Strauss, Hilail Gildin (1989). “An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays”, p.39, Wayne State University Press

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• Not everyone in an organization is in a position to accumulate power through competent performance because most people are just carrying out the ordinary and the expected - even if they do it very well. The extent to which a job is routinized fails to give an advantage to anyone doing it because 'success' is seen as inherent in the very establishment of the position and the organization surrounding it. Neither persons nor organizations get 'credit' for doing the mandatory or the expected.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Jobs, Work, Organization

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• Wealth brings noble opportunities, and competence is a proper object of pursuit; but wealth, and even competence, may be bought at too high a price. Wealth itself has no moral attribute. It is not money, but the love of money, which is the root of all evil. It is the relation between wealth and the mind and the character of its possessor which is the essential thing.

  George Stillman Hillard

  Character, Opportunity, Roots

  George Stillman HILLARD (1854). “The Dangers and Duties of the Mercantile Profession. An Address Delivered Before the Mercantile Library Association, Etc”, p.31

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• Women are penalized both for deviating from the masculine norm and for appearing to be masculine. When women try to establish their competence, they are scrutinized for evidence that they lack masculine (instrumental) characteristics as well as for signs that they no longer possess female (expressive) ones. They are taken to fail, in other words, both as a male and as a female.

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson

  Taken, Trying, Males

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1995). “Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership”, p.125, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Stories told around the water-cooler as well as statistics confirm that a man's competence is more likely to be presupposed, a woman's questioned.

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson

  Men, Water, Stories

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1995). “Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership”, p.122, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Industry suffers from the managerial dogma that for the sake of stability and continuity, the company should be independent of the competence of individual employees.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Motivational, Independent, Suffering

  "Computing Science: Achievements and Challenges". Edsger Dijkstra's keynote address at the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing in San Antonio, Texas, www.cs.utexas.edu. March 1, 1999.

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• Micromanaging erodes people's confidence, making them overly dependennt on their leaders. Well-meaning leaders inadvertently sabotage their teams by rushing to the rescue and offering too much help. A leader needs to balance assistance with wu wei, backing off long enough to let people learn from their mistakes and develop competence.

  Diane Dreher

  Mistake, Team, Offering

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• The leaders of the Pahlavi regime, in an attempt to forestall the rising tide of the Islamic revolutionary movement, were hard at work to cast doubt on the question of the Imam Khomeini's position as a Marja'a (a top religious authority) and in this way, undermine public faith in his academic, political and religious competence.

  Yousef Saanei

  Religious, Islamic, Leader

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• we found that success correlates more closely with confidence than it does with competence. Yes, there is evidence that confidence is more important than ability when it comes to getting ahead. This came as particularly unsettling news to us, having spent our own lives striving toward competence.

  Katty Kay

  Confidence, Important, Doe

  Katty Kay, Claire Shipman (2014). “The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance---What Women Should Know”, p.11, Harper Collins

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