Most Important Thing You’ve Learned

I think one of the most important things I learned about in this class was the difference and importance of potential and consistency.  As we learned, potential ability refers to the top level of work someone can perform when it is asked of them.  This isn’t their daily capability, but is what they are able to achieve when they step up and are asked to do the most they can do.  This is often what people think they should look for in a good employee.  They want top performers that have a lot of potential to do a lot of work.  Consistency refers to the ability of an employee to perform reliably.  This doesn’t mean that the work is necessarily good or bad, it just means that the employee can reliably perform at the same level without a lot of fluctuation in the level of the work they complete.

I think it is possible to have someone that is consistent, but doesn’t have a lot of potential or someone that isn’t very consistent, but has a lot of potential.  I also think it’s possible that a person is consistent and has a lot of potential or doesn’t have much of either.  They are not skills that are necessarily linked to each other, so an employee can have one, both, or neither.

Something else interesting from this class is that there isn’t anything inherently better about potential or consistency over the other.  Often we hear that potential is something to be admired above all else, but in this class, we learned that sometimes consistency is preferable to potential.  Depending on the position and what it demands of its employees, one skill may be more useful over the other, it depends on the context and the situation. 

I think this is important because this class has been all about finding the right candidates for a position.  It is all about how the person fits the job requirements and how both are varied across the job market.  This concept does a good job of summarizing that theme in this class in my opinion.  It is about finding the right person for the right job and making sure they have a fair chance of getting the position.

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One Response to Most Important Thing You’ve Learned

  1. Esther says:

    Hi Alexis,

    I agree that it is important to know the value of potential and consistency. There are different jobs where having more of one or the other may be more beneficial. I liked how you noted that a potential employee could possibly have both of these characteristics. It is definitely something to look out for when making hiring decisions.

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