Theoretically, North Star alone is sufficient to move forward with velocity towards living our larger purpose. But there are times when we have the nagging feeling that, despite having identified a motivating purpose, we are not progressing quickly towards it. To resolve this, it must be understood that each of us has ingrained behaviors that hold us back. CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel introduced the notion of the “core competence” of an organization in a Harvard Business Review article (and expanded in their book Competing for the Future) in addition to the concept of Strategic Intent in the context of organizations. Upon reflection over time, I found that it is important to pay attention to core incompetence to understand why a person (it could be an organization also) is stuck.

Core incompetence (CI) is unique to each of us and prevents us from moving towards our purpose. It seems to have its roots in our past successes and behaviors that lead to automated patterns because we are comfortable with certain well-tested successful formulae. When our core incompetence takes control over us, our capacity to think and act rationally is seriously impaired and we act on autopilot. Instead of being aware of the current context and engaging in fresh thinking, we react from past memories and dysfunctional patterns and hope for success because we developed that pattern based on past successes. In other words, our debilitating weaknesses come from unconscious application of our strengths, inappropriately and out of context.

Take the case of Howard Dean, the presidential democratic candidate in 2004 US elections. As he forged ahead of his rivals, his temperament was revealed and it was the cover story on Nov. 12, 2003 issue of USA Today written by Jill Lawrence. Some people admired his candor and others called it a ‘short fuse.’ According to Fred Greenstein, an authority on presidential leadership at Princeton University, “Character, whether you mean it as moral fiber or psychological soundness, is really the bottom line in an office in which the incumbent is never more than a couple of dozen feet away from the nuclear button. You want to be very comfortable with the personal wiring of your chief executive.” as quoted in USA Today. Dean says, according to the article, he “handled life-and-death decisions for 14 years as a doctor” and “I don’t think the American people want somebody who is never forceful in their views.” According to him, his temperament is “really not a serious issue.” Until the Iowa caucus, Dean appeared to be unstoppable. When he came in third in Iowa, it was because they believed that he was not going to win against Bush. Dean is currently the chairperson for Democratic National Committee and wants to lead democrats from being ‘second rate republicans.’

I have come across many different executives in my practice who are very passionate yet don’t know when to tone down their intensity and passion which often scares others in the company. So, they rarely receive appropriate information or bad news in time to make a right decision. Volatile tempers, excessive distractibility, and chronic tardiness – all have roots in CI though on the bright side they are responsible for our intensity, brilliance and efficiency. It is just that we have over-used our strength and it is now a liability that we are not aware of or don’t want to acknowledge.

How can we discover our CI? By looking at areas where we get repeatedly stuck and where we think we already know the answer and are sure that we are right. We have to pay special attention to behaviors and attitudes that other people complain about and things we usually justify or hide from others.
CI arises out of lack of contextual awareness. When we don’t pay attention to our CI, slowly but steadily it sabotages us. It deludes us into believing that we are on the right track except that we may arrive at a wrong station. Once we identify our CI, we need to find a coach we are comfortable with to help us gain deeper awareness and pay constant attention. Then we have to work towards finding our North Star (that inspires, gives direction and challenges us). Faced with a challenge to reach our higher purpose, we usually find it easier to work with our core incompetence. When I coach executives, I pay special attention to CI because it is a serious growth-limiting factor. Once we are aware of our CI, we can partner with peers who have more awareness in the area of our incompetence and ask them to point it out to us until we become very aware of it and we are self-correcting.

CI is like a hook: it’s an unconscious, addictive pattern. Once we are conscious of it and also have found a North Star that truly inspires and challenges us, our CI will begin to lose its grip on us. It is important to remember that CI emerges based on our past successes and is like our winning formula. That is what is so tricky about a CI. It behaves as though it is our friend but prevents our growth.

In my experience, I found that North Star and Core Incompetence are like opposite sides of the same coin. One is related to aspiration and the other to desperation. Both can have significant influence on our mindset and behavior but when we have both working for us, we become unstoppable.

While North Star and Core Incompetence help us connect with our past and potential future, we still need tools that support us on our journey towards our North Star and away from our CI. We need tools to manage our energy in the moment so that we stay engaged with the journey. For example, let’s say we are in a motorboat tied to a dock in San Francisco. We want to reach Seattle and that is our North Star. Our energy management system is made of the gas pedal and the brake pedal as they provide controlled movement towards our goal. The rope that ties our boat to the dock is CI. Till we untie the boat from the dock, moving forward is difficult even though the coast is clear and our vision is perfect. Once the boat is freed and moving in the direction of Seattle, it is important to manage the journey with the gas pedal and the brake pedal. In the following paragraphs, we will understand more about our “gas pedals” and “brakes” that help and hinder our journey towards North Star.

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