By Evans Tu (President & CEO, SYNNEX Group)

We tend to be easily impressed when we see how calm, quick and practiced others are at their work and believe they must be very capable at what they do.

When learning something new, it is natural that we become slowly adept at it as we start practicing it more frequently over time. If we look at how things are done at established firms, we will find that standard operating procedures (SOP) are often designed in place to maximize quality and efficiency. This implies that anyone can become easily adept at what they do and produce quality work simply by following the standard procedures.

Becoming practiced and familiar in a certain subject is only a matter of time, it has nothing to do with one's personal capabilities. Hence being practiced at a certain matter does not imply that we are equally capable at it.

We are only considered capable at what we do when we are able to develop our own insight of the process, handle the challenges that come along our way and improve the original way of how things are done.

We should recognize that it is not at all difficult for an individual to be familiar with an industry when they have entered into it for a long time and have managed to establish a lot of connections. If such individuals misleading believe themselves as very capable ones, simply because of their familiarity with the industry and stop trying to improve themselves, they will lose their competitive advantage once less experienced competitors also become familiar and practiced in what they do.

Furthermore, you can't use familiarity to your advantage if you are working in a long-established industry as everyone around you have also had many years of industry experience.

Although connections tend to play an important role, given that competition is fierce in well-established industries, companies often must think deeply about what other business conditions would be most favorable to the company. As a result, networks and connections become catalysts instead of key decision factors. Not to mention, people constantly switch career paths and move to different places, individuals are destined to fail in the long run if they rely only on connections and fail to develop their own capabilities.

Individuals who see themselves as capable simply because they are practiced at a certain matter should learn the above truths and develop their own capabilities. It is important that managers do not mistake familiarity for capability, otherwise this can cause difficulties for departments to nurture talent in the long term.