What is the difference between skills and competencies?

1. Introduction
   1. I remember when I started working in tech, I had my first performance review with my manager and she told me that one of the areas I needed to develop was my “Analytical Mindset”. At that time I was an ambitious 23 year old, who felt like he needed to show how much smarter he was than everyone else, so I nodded along and left my manager feeling that I had taken the feedback onboard and I was going to work on it.
   2. But of course the reality of the situation was that I had absolutely no idea what an “Analytical Mindset” looked like, let alone how to develop one. I found it impossible to admit this to her and it took me a long time to realise that what I didn’t understand was the difference between Skills and Competencies.
   3. Understanding Skills and Competencies
   4. So in this post I’m going to explain that difference, but I also plan to go into some detail around how understanding this difference has helped me unlock more potential in my career.
2. Skills vs Competencies
   1. Often when we learn about career development, the words “Skill” and “Competency” tend to get used interchangeably, however even though they are quite similar there are some key differences that
   2. Lets start by thinking of skills as building blocks, each time you learn a new skills, you get another block
   3. If we think of skills as building blocks, you need to start with the foundational before you can build the rest of the house
   4. Breadth – Competencies
   5. Depth – skills
   6. It’s only when you have this foundation of skills developed can you look to build more complexity on top
3. Depth vs Breadth
   1. Breadth refers to adding new areas of competency
   2. Depth means learning additional skills and increasing your knowledge in one particular competency
   3. Working for consulting companies means you gain a lot of breadth in Business and Technology, but not much depth
   4. Steve Jobs on consulting

Skills are the specific learned abilities that you need to perform a given job well. Examples, depending on the specific role, range from handling accounts and coding to welding or writing tenders. There is a distinction, however, to be made between hard skills and soft skills. Whereas a hard skill is a technical and quantifiable skill that a professional may demonstrate through their specific qualifications and professional experiences, a soft skill is a non-technical skill that is less rooted in specific vocations. An example of a hard skill, then, may be computer programming or proficiency in a foreign language, whereas a soft skill may be time management or verbal communication.

Competencies, on the other hand, are the person’s knowledge and behaviours that lead them to be successful in a job. Examples of competencies, then, include the improvement of business processes, strategic planning and data-based decisions. Competencies effectively explain how an individual’s behaviours bring about the desired results in their role. As with skills, there are various types of competencies – including core competencies, which are those that any successful employee requires to rise through an organisation. In the words of marketer Aja Davis Isble, “…a core competency is something that is core to you and how you work – so it is something that could potentially set you apart from every other candidate.”