Phases of competence

Hay presents the competence curve in Figure 11.2 on page 137 of her book, Transformational Mentoring: Creating developmental alliances for changing organizational cultures.

The curve shows that competence drops initially during a period of immobilisation, appears to rise as the learner goes through a phase of denial and then drops as they experience frustration. As time passes, the competence curve rises steadily throughout the phases of acceptance, development, application and completion. At the peak of the curve, competence is usually higher than it was at the outset.

On page 140, Hay goes on to summarise the phases of competence in the following table.

The phases of competence
Stage	Competence	Behaviour
1. Immobilization	Drops	We seem to do nothing, to withdraw or mark time.
2. Denial	Appears to rise	We act as if nothing has changed and go on as we used to.
3. Frustration	Drops again	We know we need to change but don’t know how.
4. Acceptance	Begins to rise	We start exploring options that might be appropriate to the new situation.
5. Development	Continues to rise	We develop our new skills and knowledge so as to become competent performers.
6. Application	Is consolidated	We apply our new skills within our new situation.
7. Completion	Maximum competence is evident	We are through the transition and are no longer conscious of having been through a change.

Hay, J 1995, Transformational Mentoring: Creating developmental alliances for changing organizational cultures, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.