Competence Archives - Page 8 of 9

Show Me

Missouri is called the Show-Me State. The Missouri Secretary of State traces the slogan to Congressman Willard Vandiver at a naval banquet in Philadelphia. “…frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

Vandiver did not invent the phrase. It was in print by 1893, when the Omaha Daily Bee printed a letter from a man who wrote, “I am from Missouri and they must show me something.” The state gives the banquet as 1899. One researcher, Barry Popik, dates it to 1900, and the slogan has never been made official.

Past Performance

When the federal government buys goods and services, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires that past performance “shall be evaluated in all source selections” for negotiated competitive acquisitions above a set threshold, unless the contracting officer documents why it is not appropriate. A contractor’s record on earlier contracts becomes part of the score.

A newcomer is treated neutrally. In the case of an offeror without a record of relevant past performance, the offeror “may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance.”

The First 90 Days

Michael Watkins’s The First 90 Days was published by Harvard Business School Press in 2003 as a guide for managers starting a new job. It advises them to pursue small-scale “early wins” to build credibility.

Seven Probationary Years

A new professor at an American university is often hired on the tenure track. The American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges set the rule in their 1940 Statement of Principles: “the probationary period should not exceed seven years.”

“After the expiration of a probationary period, teachers or investigators should have permanent or continuous tenure.”

The Probationary Year

A new federal employee in the competitive service serves a probationary period of one year. Agency guidance calls it “the final step in the examination and appointment process,” designed “so that supervisors can assess whether an employee can perform the duties of a job.” An employee can be let go if performance or conduct “fails to demonstrate fitness for continued employment.”

In February 2025 the Trump administration fired probationary employees across the government. A federal judge put the number affected at at least 25,000. Termination letters said they had “not demonstrated” that further employment would be in the public interest. In April a federal judge, William Alsup, ordered agencies to tell the workers in writing that they were not fired for performance reasons.

The judge explained why: “Termination under the false pretense of performance is an injury that will persist for the working life of each civil servant.”

The 199th Pick

The New England Patriots drafted Tom Brady with the 199th pick in 2000, in the sixth round. Their starter was Drew Bledsoe, who had signed a 10-year, $103 million contract. On September 23, 2001, a hit from the Jets linebacker Mo Lewis sheared an artery, and Brady got his chance.

In November, with Bledsoe back, Bill Belichick announced that Brady would remain the starter. Bledsoe said he had been told he would get a chance to win back his job. Brady finished that season as the Super Bowl MVP.

Graded and Progressive Responsibility

A new American doctor has the degree but not yet the independence. In its 2014 program requirements the accrediting body for residency programs, the ACGME, called the rule “graded and progressive responsibility” and described it as “one of the core tenets of American graduate medical education.”

Residents received more as they “demonstrate growth in their ability to care for patients.” Supervisory roles and conditional independence were a privilege, and they “must be assigned by the program director and faculty members.”

“Self-Made Man”

Americans apply a two-word adjective to their business heroes. He is self-made. The phrase was strong enough to survive being used by a man born into slavery.

Frederick Douglass delivered a lecture called “Self-Made Men” beginning in 1859. His definition was severe. Self-made men “owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings.”

Douglass gave one explanation for success. Self-made men, he said, are “men of work.”

The Dropout Founder

Bill Gates left Harvard. Steve Jobs left Reed College. Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard. In American business culture these are not scandals. They are origin stories.

The culture formalized the choice. In 2011 Peter Thiel’s fellowship began paying young people to skip college and build companies. The first class had 24 fellows. Each received 100,000 dollars.

“Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps”

Americans praise the self-reliant with an impossible image. It is “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.”

The phrase began as a joke about the impossible. It appears in an 1834 newspaper. In 1860 a writer compared the mind analyzing itself to a man lifting himself by his own bootstraps.

The joke faded. By 1922 the phrase meant improving yourself by your own efforts. Today it is said without irony as a plan for success.