“Beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert… but based on what?”
Competency level comes from real performance in the field, not years or titles: autonomy, complexity, impact and consistency.
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Field notes
I write about competency, training and career progression as I see them in the field. A selection of my LinkedIn posts.
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Selected posts
Posts are originally written in Arabic; the English lines here are translations.
“You can build an excellent competency framework… and nobody ends up using it!”
Build it from the start with three people: the job holder, the line manager and HR.
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“Start a competency framework from a ready-made list and you’ll get a tidy framework…”
Start from the job: role outcome → critical task → competency → observable behaviour.
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“The team needs training”… let’s check first: is it really a training problem?
Before finding a course: do they know the task? Is the procedure clear? Do they have the tools and authority? Or is it follow-up?
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“I’m doing work above my title”
Before promoting, hand over part of the next level’s responsibilities — “I could” and “I did” are different things.
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“Career progression… or just “was I promoted?””
Promotion changes your position; career progression builds your readiness for the next step.
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“70:20:10… and I don’t dwell on the ratios”
Before booking a course: what experience can I give them? Who can they learn from? What do they really need to know?
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“When I started leading teams, I thought being in every detail helped the team learn.”
A leader’s job isn’t to be in every detail — it’s knowing when to step in and when to leave room to learn.
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“After a promotion is turned down, there are 4 well-meant reactions — each one pushes the next promotion further away.”
The rejection doesn’t stop your path; what you do in the days after it decides.
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“Are we preparing L&D teams for the future — or preparing them to be replaced by it?”
From a session with local and global experts: how AI changes needs analysis, content, assessment and succession — and where people still matter.
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“An incident doesn’t begin the moment it happens… it begins the day we decide training alone is enough.”
Reading a train derailment through technical readiness: the gap between training and competence.
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“The work no one sees is often the work with the most impact.”
On the Riyadh Metro Heroes honour: a year of technical readiness behind the scenes, and a team that knew excellence isn’t built on slogans.
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