ASK in the context of this write-up means Attitude, Skills, and Knowledge. The assessment of these components that make a successful personality is necessary to discuss in evaluating competencies, performance, and outcomes in individual and managerial functions.
By simple definition, Attitude is the feelings, opinions, or characters that are displayed by an individual in a given setting. Skills are the practical abilities displayed while Knowledge is the theoretical information obtained.
These definitions look simplified but they become difficult when applied in a real-life sense. While one may be neglected, another may be underrepresented. For this reason, individuals and corporate bodies need to do a personal assessment audit of themselves or their staff to know which of these components needs to be enhanced.
From my experience as a business executive and a school administrator, I can give examples of these three components under discussion, based on a personal observation.
On Attitude, I want to use the name Joyce to drive my point. Joyce is a very intelligent staff who understands her employment position, knows the facts and figures, and has the experience, creativity, resilience and talents required in her duties. Joyce has the skills but unfortunately, she lacks the ability to respect, to motivate, and to support others. She is a bad team member whose negative attitude affects her team’s productivity. She lacks the positive attitude needed for her good traits to shine.
On Skills, John came from a very humble background and has dedicated his life to breaking through his limitations. He displays a very good attitude to work, shows interest in researching and exploring and creates time for improvement. He is very punctual to work, always willing to learn, very respectful and always disposed to improve. But John lacks the capacity to do certain tasks. He keeps making mistakes, being sorry always and causing lots of damage to the company. John lacks the skills to be the best in his work even when he has the right attitude.
On knowledge, Lydia was employed as a master’s degree holder. She has an impressive educational background and has bagged a lot of certificates and honours in financial and business management. She can defend all her certificates in theory but in practice, she is unable to do what needs to be done. She’s always relying on her colleagues for ideas, suggestions and opinions in matters that require practical solutions. Lydia is rich in knowledge but lacking in the skills needed to take her career to the next level. Even with her impressive educational background, she remained in the same employment position for years without promotion because she couldn’t be recommended.
From the three examples above, it is obvious that Attitude, Skills and Knowledge are the three elements needed for a successful path to life. It is recommended for everyone, both young and old, to have a blend of these three components for a fruitful, rewarding and sustainable productive life. Unfortunately, whilst skills and knowledge can both be acquired, attitude is inborn and requires much commitment to overcome. Someone who is arrogant or has a bad temper, no matter how knowledgeable or skilful he is is a cankerworm to the progress of any organisation because skills and knowledge can be learnt at work but attitude requires a personal effort.
We are in a competitive and complex era where continuous improvement in the individual, social and corporate world is consistently required. Therefore, the need to secure the knowledge, to be equipped with the competence and to wear the right attitude in navigating these complexities, cannot be over-emphasised.
The inability to imbibe this well-blended formula, explains why some people keep growing and making progress but at a point, the growth curve starts taking a downward slope. It also explains why some people who come from an absolutely low background, and no education, yet were able to make remarkable inputs in various fields like arts, music, dance, sports or creative skills.
Parents and teachers are therefore urged to teach and imbibe this blended formula in children for them to have that consciousness of what it requires to get to the zenith of their aspirations.
โ๏ธAmara Ann Unachukwu
