What an employee wants matters more than what they can do

How can it be that someone has completely mastered a role and is still unhappy? Why is an enviable diploma no guarantee of success? How can it be that someone with less experience delivers better performance than someone with years of experience? What is certain: whoever wants to achieve good performance has to possess good competencies. A great deal of research has been carried out over the past ten years into the importance of competencies. The definition of a competency: the skill or knowledge around a subject that you need in order to carry out a role successfully. But does that make you successful?

Competencies: what can I do?
Someone may possess a competency such as ’analytical ability’. You are then well able to see connections between different matters. You can also separate the essentials from the side issues. Another example: you have strong communication skills. Through verbal and non-verbal communication you know better than anyone how to convey insights and ideas to others. With competencies it is all about the central question: what can I do?

Drivers: what do I want?
But competencies alone are not enough when you want to make the difference as an individual, a team or an organisation. You also have to ask yourself: what do I want? What motivates me? Research pays relatively little attention to people's intrinsic motivation, in short: to their drivers. That is partly because a concept such as competency, and the competency management that goes with it, is deeply anchored within organisations. When there is a vacancy, the emphasis is often placed automatically on the competencies the future employee needs.

Drivers: do not forget them
Drivers are wrongly forgotten in the process, which means that employee can rarely be successful, because it is unclear whether their drivers really do fit the role and the organisational culture. Another reason why relatively little research has been done into human drivers: they are largely regarded as a fixed given. Drivers are also difficult to train and develop further. Someone whose profile mainly contains individually oriented drivers, and who prefers to set their own course, will be less suited to a vacancy for a genuine people manager. Even if they possess the communication skills mentioned earlier, for instance.

No result without the right drivers
Do you want to achieve above-average results? Then your drivers are more important than your competencies. Someone with a strong will to achieve something can partly compensate for a weaker competency with it. Conversely, a strong competency can never compensate for a lack of motivation. So it is not only about being able, but above all about wanting. What is the challenge for an organisation in this? Make optimal use of an employee's competencies, but then make sure they do work that connects with what they really want, with their drivers. That is how you increase their engagement and motivation.

In summary
Attention to employees' drivers is an absolute requirement for reaching exceptional performance. Even more than the necessary competencies, drivers give quality to the way a role is carried out. Self-insight is an important requirement here. As an employee you have to know clearly what you want, but also what you can do. Finally: make sure you manage and organise the things you are less good at tightly. Concentrate on your strengths. When those then connect seamlessly with your drivers, exceptional performance is within reach.