You don’t know who’s capable until things go off script.
There’s a range of meeting types which run according to a specific structure. I remember a specific conference room in Beverly, MA; we’ve got our slide decks fully populated, we know all the right words to say (even though I spent way too long designing that one diagram), and personally, I’m looking forward to the Kudos at the end for our solid presentation skills.
The meeting was running on auto-pilot when my colleague gets thrown a question they weren’t expecting. It was from a senior internal executive, one who didn’t normally attend these meetings. It grew more tense as people around the room nodded along, indicating their shared interest in how we may respond to the curveball query.
I don’t know exactly how my friend felt in that moment, but he smirked. A warm expression which at least to me conveyed ease, confidence. He went on to answer the question succinctly and directly. What I remember is that his answer made it clear he understood the question, he was able to deduce why they asked the question, and he had thought about it himself. In truth, I don’t actually remember the content.
He walked away from that room more credible with our executive team than he walked into it.
I’ve been in plenty of rooms where it goes exactly the opposite direction.
Not a quotes guy, (my memory doesn’t work like that) but I do like this one:
Difficulties are the things that show what men are (αἱ περιστάσεις εἰσὶν αἳ τοὺς ἄνδρας δεικνύουσιν).
Epictetus, Discourses
While I wouldn’t fully endorse his extrapolation that then hardship should always be viewed as God testing you, it is true that pressure often reveals in us what competencies we have honed to the point of being instinctual vs areas which still require rehearsal.
It answers the question: have you internalized your ability.
We trust a pilot because of how they handled the reading or the storm they didn’t expect, not because of their flight hours. We trust a surgeon because of how they reacted to the case that didn’t look like what they expected, not because of the diplomas on they have on the wall.
Patterns beat credentials every time.
- A diploma says you can do it, but a pattern of handling hard cases demonstrates you do.
- A clean diagram or slide deck is just a claim; what’s your track record?
- “We use AI” is a posture, but “here is how it helps us achieve X” is competence.
In practice, trust rarely collapses through a single dramatic failure. It drains through small competence gaps — the deployment that worked but no one could explain in detail, the control that fired but no one could trace, the model that performed but no one had ownership. The same erosion happens anywhere people are relied on. Reputations don’t often disappear in a moment, but drain in the small moments where the person in charge couldn’t account for what just happened.
The useful question is not “are we capable?” It’s “can we demonstrate our capability under pressure?”
What’s one area you have stated competence, but could use more practice? More honing, internalizing?
Leave a Reply