The Big Three: Expertise, Motivation And Professionalism

Curious as to why KarmaFile’s ratings are based on three core attributes? Maybe you think three is too many. Maybe you think it’s not enough. Or, maybe you think we should have used smiley faces instead, and scrapped all these pesky ratings. All good thoughts, but give us a few minutes of your time, and we’ll gladly make our case for Expertise, Motivation and Professionalism.

Oddly enough, we started KarmaFile thinking there would be seven attributes to rank people on. Highly specific and relevant, with little room for misinterpretation. But as we showed the concept to more and more people, it became obvious that seven was too intense for the wide world of workdom… most people simply couldn’t analyze another person with that much granularity. So, to create a more elegant solution, we went back to school. Literally.

Think of your earliest memory of being “graded.” Probably elementary school, yes? 1st grade or so? Now think of how you were graded, and you’ll come to the same epiphany we did: the world grades you on the same three attributes over the course of your entire life.

#1: Expertise. In school, it’s your actual grade for an assignment or subject. It shows what you know, what you’ve mastered. If you have high expertise, you’re probably very intelligent or skilled, and that can take you a long way in life.

#2: Motivation. Ever remember getting an “E” for effort in school? That’s motivation. Very few people are gifted with naturally high expertise, and even then, many of them waste their potential. That’s why you get graded for effort in life. It shows how driven you are to achieve, to improve, to make a positive change for the greater good.

#3: Professionalism. No matter how smart or how driven you are, the world does not revolve around you. It’s your duty as a human being to help make the social environment a safe, nurturing place for all people to thrive. When you were in school, did you “play well with others” and “make friends easily”? Were you “a joy to have in class”? If so, you probably got high marks for classroom behavior then, and you’re likely a model of professionalism now.

There are literally dozens of factors you could consider in grading someone’s value in the workplace. There are only three that matter. Keep it simple.