Process Vs Content- Which Is More Valuable?

Engaging with my teammates gives me the privilege and opportunity to coach and guide them toward becoming better professionals.

Most coaching conversations revolve around specific aspects of personal development.

I use Seth Godin’s blog  “What are you good at?” as a reference to explain what the focus must be when it pertains to personal development. In this article he writes about the difference between process and content.

Below is a part transcript of what Seth Godin says in the blog:

================================================

As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content.

Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you’ve developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head.

Domain knowledge is important, but it’s (often) easily learnable.

Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it’s usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it’s hard to accredit or check off in a database.

===================================================

While tangible domain-based competence is important, the specific knowledge that one gains from the experience of dealing with situations and people, making trade-offs and mistakes, and getting things done is what powers professional growth.