A Crisis of Competence

By Allison M. Vaillancourt. Over the winter break I had lunch with with a colleague I have always admired. He is smart, classy and gregarious, and I have made a habit of observing the things he does to appear so confident, put together, and bulletproof. To my surprise and chagrin, he seemed like a different person when we got together recently. Instead of being confident, he was unsure. Instead of being focused on the future, he expressed confusion about what to do next. Normally the type of person who fills a room, he seemed somehow smaller. What was the difference between before and after? The answer: He is now reporting to someone new. See more...