Competencies – a quick guide

Much study has been carried out to help determine key competencies required by people to be effective in many different kinds of work.

An appreciation of the importance of the use of competencies in professional growth, recruitment and assessment is essential for investment in these activities to be accurately targeted.

What is a competency?

A competency is a set of skills, attitudes and other personal qualities that combine to make a person effective in a particular aspect of their work.

Competencies are distinguishable from outputs. Outputs answer the question “What do people contribute by way of their job?” Competencies answer the question “What knowledge or skills do people need to successfully carry out their jobs?”

Competencies can also be called performance factors or performance dimensions.  Whatever we call them, the important point is that they break a job or role category down into sets of personal attributes, rather than into tasks or functions.  This makes it easier to assess people’s potential, performance and development needs, in terms of what the job requires.

For example:
“Collaboration” is a common managerial competency defined as follows:
Collaborator:  works with colleagues and suppliers across organisational boundaries to ensure the best results for the business and the client.

The key elements

Even more important than the competency’s label and its general description, are the detailed statements describing the key elements of the competency.  These key elements are different for different organisations and role categories, even when the competency labels and general descriptions are the same or similar.

For example, the statements describing the key elements of Collaborator are:

• Works co-operatively with other teams and suppliers to achieve mutual benefit and the best results of the business.
• Spends time in discussion and negotiation with colleagues and suppliers to ensure a co-ordinated approach for the client.
• Draws on expertise and input from other teams and parts of the organisation.
• Puts effort into developing good relationships with a wide range of colleagues across the business.
• Takes opportunities to provide support and coaching for peers and colleagues from other teams.
• Demonstrates awareness of other cultures, adapting approach to suit.

These key elements were defined by:

1. Researching what managers actually do, think and feel when they are carrying out their work to a high standard.
2. Taking into account the strategic direction of many businesses and the implications of this for future requirements.
3. Applying an understanding of the personal skills and attributes that are key to managerial effectiveness in other organisations.

Using Management Competencies in Assessment

Assessing each competency: the key elements

Because the key elements provide the most accurate description of a competency, any competency-based assessment of an individual manager should focus on these key elements.  In the Multi-Source Feedback Questionnaire, this focus is provided for you because you are asked to rate each element separately.

In another situation, you might want to make an overall judgement about someone’s performance in a particular role.  The way to do this is to read all the key elements, as well as the general competency definition.  You can then combine this information with your knowledge of a particular job, to form your own view on how to assess each competency.

The Multi-Source Feedback Questionnaire

Through the Multi-Source Feedback Questionnaire information about individual managers is collected in a standardised way and is based on what we know to be important for managerial effectiveness across the organisation (i.e. on the competencies and their key elements).  The standardisation makes is possible to:

• Collect comparable views on a manager’s performance from a number of different people.
• Compare managers’ performance and potential, even when they are working in different parts of the business and in roles that are quite diverse in terms of tasks, functions and levels of responsibility.
• Interpret the results in terms of organisational, as well as individual, strengths, weaknesses and development priorities.

What about differences between jobs and parts of the business?

Competency-based assessment should always be flexible enough to allow for differences in jobs and situations.  In the Multi-Source Feedback Questionnaire, this is done by:

• Asking you to rate the importance of each competency for the job of the person you are reviewing.
• Allowing you to circle n/a if you feel the statement does not apply to the reviewee’s job.
• Providing a space for comments.

Various departments and businesses will have their own competency models or sets of requirements against which they assess people.  These models capture the differences relevant to each area and are useful for many purposes.  However, the broad Competency model allows for consistency and for valid comparisons across an organisation, while emphasising key requirements specific to a particular business.

Advantages of Competency-Based Assessment

Consistency

One of the main advantages of introducing competency-based assessment is that it encourages managers to use the same criteria for selection, development, performance management and career planning.  All too often people find that their development objectives have been set on the basis of one set of requirements, while other criteria are used for promotion decisions.

Objectivity

Although all assessments reflect the subjective views of the assessor, competency-based assessment adds an important element of objectivity.  This is because the competencies provide detailed guidance on which aspects of a person’s behaviour are relevant to managerial performance.

Because the key elements are described in concrete behavioural terms, it is easier for people to collect and refer to evidence when judging someone else’s performance. It is also easier for the person being assessed to challenge judgements they disagree with.

Identification of managerial potential and development needs

The competencies focus on the key requirements of managerial effectiveness without being restricted to the context of a particular job.  They can, therefore, be used to identify a person’s potential and suitability for other managerial roles that may be quite different from those he or she has occupied in the past.

Similarly, competency-based assessments facilitate the identification of specific areas of weakness and the prioritisation of development needs.

In development planning, as in other uses of competency-based assessment, it is important to avoid a mechanistic approach.  When combined with your own understanding of individuals, the situation and the organisation, competency models and assessment methods are tools that can help increase the effectiveness, rigour and objectivity of assessment.

Competency-based assessment should be applied with thought and care.  It is designed to facilitate and enhance your own judgements, not to constrain them.

Using our free competency analyses

Free assessment

To assist individuals and organisations determine their own key competencies for various jobs, we provide here a number of free questionnaires.
Use of these will begin to indicate, or confirm those competencies required by individuals or groups. Please remember, at this level, we can only provide generic key competencies. Individuals or groups will place more or less emphasis on certain questions and may delete or add new questions, reflecting their precise needs.

Further help

We would be happy to help with activities around key competencies. These could include:

• Production of specific key competencies
• Production of specific questionnaires
• Analysis of performance gaps
• Assessment centres
• Specific development activities

Assessment questionnaires

We currently offer questionnaires covering key competencies for:

• Management
• Sales
• Consultants

To obtain your free questionnaire, please contact us specifying which one you require.