Last week, we introduced the “Four Dimensions” framework for constructing an MBA job candidate profile (using the visualization below) and addressed two of the four elements – Performance and Behavior. Let’s now turn to the remaining two categories: Capabilities and Smarts.
Performance < ––––––––– > Behavior
Capabilities < ––––––––– > Smarts
As categories, we learned that Performance and Behavior are what a person does, whereas Capabilities and Smarts are who or what a job candidate is. The Capabilities category describes the sum set of skills that a person currently possesses – his or her ability to perform a task of some technical quality or expertise (everything from building a financial model to creating a PowerPoint presentation, coding a new piece of software, or managing a project). A certified public accountant, for example, possesses a very specific set of capabilities centered on analyzing balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.
Smarts, in contrast, is a person’s general ability to learn, make critical comparisons, comprehend new information, and change, grow, and adapt to new circumstances (I will leave it to cognitive experts to decide whether "smarts" itself is a fixed, intrinsic quality, or whether it too is malleable). Smarts, in this context, is shorthand for one’s ability to acquire new capabilities, and it encompasses all the things we think of when we refer to someone’s intelligence, curiosity, and even wisdom.
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