How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 251

'Confident Incompetence'. He was referring to some of our
professors and senior teachers, somewhat past their prime..."
The joke is a warning of the dangers of lapsing into complacency
after attaining mastery in anything, and is therefore a very useful
point.
And this, from Lee Freeman (May 2009): "...Regarding the
conscious competence model, I came up with this little thought...
'The unconscious incompetent doesn't know he's incompetent
and when he is competent, is unconscious of his competence.
And when his meta-conscious competence imparts vigilant
omniscience, truly he's a fool when he believes he's omnipotent!
Or maybe he's just unconscious of this…"
Here are interesting comments from Charles H Grover (March
2010): "...I have been reading the discussions about adding a 5th
step to this model, and suggest that the first four are simply out
of step. I refer you to the 'He who knows not...' proverb (below).
The old Confucious/Persian/Arabic saying has step three
(Conscious Competence) as the ultimate, while step four
(Unconscious Competence) is the person asleep, and he/she
needs to be woken up. I believe this really makes Will Taylor's
excellent diagram clearer; discovery, learning, practice,
mentorship. Who are we to hold their hands when they are
inviting us to climb on their shoulders? A fifth stage is easier to
define when we get the first four in order..."
Origins and of conscious competence model
It is not clear who originated the very first 'conscious
competence' learning model. As well as various modern authors,
sources as old as Confucius and Socrates are cited as possible
earliest originators.
You will see here that Gordon Training International is popularly
considered to be the originator of the conscious competence
model. The Gordon Training 'Learning Stages' model certainly

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