PRE-COURSE READING MATERIAL

Building Value Based Competencies

A brief introduction

Chandramowly

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© 1995 Corel Corp.

What are Competencies?

“I am happy to tell you that I have finished reading the MS office manual”

“I see” “Can you enter this data using excel and pull it a pie chart on a power point?”

“Yes, I could do that. But it may take some more time. I haven’t used the on line help demos yet. By next week I will be certainly ready to do it”

“Don’t bother Gopal, I just need it now. Here goes John. Hi John, will you help me with the charts and presentation? I know you do that quickly”

“Look! I am just coming out of the meeting with boss. I am terribly upset. You have Ramesh in your department right? Why can’t you get that done from him? I am sorry I can not help you now…”

“OK John, relax. Ramesh wont be able help me you know. He complains about work load and if I still insist, he takes the work and that goes to the wheel of procrastination”. Let me see what I can do. Yes. I would approach Brinda, she may help me.” Our Manager runs to Brinda, the Secretary to VP-Finance. When approach, Brinda says, “Sir, it would my pleasure to do that. But I am sorry, I need to complete this minutes of the board meeting. Please understand. Moreover, it would affect my incentive plan if I don’t pass this on to the members by the end of the day”

Knowledge of MS office is required to prepare a presentation. But, knowing that is not enough. One must be able to apply knowledge. Application of knowledge is Skill. Knowledge and Skill, both are required to produce results. Some times the combination of knowledge, skill and experience also may fail to deliver good results because of absence of another component ‘Will’, the willing attitude to do something, by applying the knowledge and experience.

Results occur when knowledge, skill and experience are driven by right attitude. McClelland calls it as “underlying characteristics”. If you can know the underlying characteristics of a person, you can predict what he could do. Underlying characteristics means what lies beneath the ‘iceberg’ of human personality. In the above story, Gopal had the knowledge but not Skill. John had both and not a willing attitude. Ramesh has all but suffers from his known attribute of procrastination. Brinda, though willing to do, is not motivated to take up this job. If you examine further, you will detect that motivation is actually connected to the hidden values of an individual.

The combination of Knowledge, Skill, Experience, Attitude, Attribute, Motive and Values that promote higher performance in individual and organisations is called ‘COMPETENCIES’

Vinayak and Vishwesh were collage mates and both come out in high ranks. They also got into a good organisation on their successful campus selection. The scenario after 12years is different. Vishwesh is a Country Head, managing multiple projects in the same mullti-national organisation where as Vinayak continues to work as senior programmer.

Kareem Bhai and Yusuf graduated from the same law school with almost matching credentials. They took up different jobs. Yusuf became an advocate and Kareem Joined a Bank. Yusuf today is one of the senior members of judiciary and he was not too happy to

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meet his friend Kareem after a long gap of 12 years. It was an irony that he had to pass a judgment of guilt against Kareem in a bank fraud.

Excellence is always confined to few but mediocre cases are many.

Some people are effective than others. They approach their goals differently than average people. There can unknown Mother Elisa who is also serving humanity but can not be compared to Mother Theresa. How do you differentiate between Harilal Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi who are a comparison like mole and mountain? How different are successful people from others who are not.

Prediction of performance excellence is the key or organisations. In the first Generation Assessment of Talent was the only criteria. In the 2nd GA, Assessment was based on Selection and Career Orientation. In the 3rd GA in mid 80s Training and Development was added. In 90s, the 4 th GA considered: Assessment and career orientation, Training and Development and Organisational change, was considered. This opened up new concepts such as 360 degree assessments, Development Centres, Learning Centres, Self Insight Centres, and Virtual Assessment etc.

In 1960, McClelland, a Harvard Psychologist and founder of McBer, wrote a land mark article in the American Psychologist asserting that I.Q and Personality tests were poor predictors of competency. Later he was asked by the U.S. Foreign Service to develop new methods that could predict human performance. The goal was to eliminate the potential biases of traditional intelligence and aptitude testing. This was the beginning of the field of competency measurement.

What characteristics differentiate outstanding performance was the question before McClelland’s research team. The team made contrast assessment of outstanding and average performers using ratings from their bosses. Then they developed a system called Behavioural Event Interview to provide detailed accounts of how the interviewees approached critical situations both successful and unsuccessful. The later stage was content analysis to identify themes differentiating outstanding performers from average performers. All through the research team used non-leading probing questions. In the thematic analysis of interview data, the job analysis part focused on effective performance, outstanding performance was related to Competencies. That was the first Competency Model

Competency models work well as unifying frameworks for variety HRM applications. More than 50% of fortune 500 companies have competency based practices which are built using Resource Panels, Critical Event Interviews or by applying Generic Competency Models or by combining all the three methods. Besides McClelland, the UK NQ movement in 1991 and AT&T sponsored studies opened up the Competency Era.

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A CompetencyIs “an underlying

Characteristic of an Individual that iscausally related to criterion

referenced to effective and/or superior performance in a job

situation.

David McClelland

The effectiveness of competency models depends on simplicity of its organisation specific contents. The competencies must be clearly stated by indicators and evident performance impact. They become the fitting tool for all people processes.

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Your Functional Competencies gets you hired.

Your Behavioural Competencies takes you up or pull you down.

Attitude, not Activity that decides the Altitude

What is a COMPETENCY?

Observable and measurable Knowledge, Skill and

Attitudes, Attributes, Values and Motives that must be applied to achieve results

aligned with Goals.

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Competencies are more intangible and difficult to define. We can say that It describes a set

of behavioiurs that produces outstanding performance in a job.

DEFINING COMPETENCIES

TYPES OF COMPETENCIES

CORE COMPETENCIES

Required by an organisation to meet its mission, vision, values and strategic plan. Applicable to all positions of an organisation

ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES

Generic competencies required for a level irrespective of the functions. Defined in band levels

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

Specific to particular functional positions. Defined in band levels. Also called as Technical Competencies

COMPETENCY CONNECTION

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GOALS are mile stones we set. TASKS are activities to reach Goals

MISSION

Mission is the purpose, the reason for existence

VALUES

How we expect to reach our destination. The underpinning of our choices and means to achieve the same

VISION

Vision is the mind’s picture of desired future.

An employee meets departmental goals by

achieving own KPIs, using competencies in line with

the business strategies aligned to the company’s

Mission, Vision and Values

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COMPETENT

Qualified to perform to standards of the Job processes

COMPETENCE

The condition or state of being competent

COMPETENCY

Cluster of Knowledge, Skills and Attributes resulting in Superior performance

COMPETENCY MODEL

Listed collection of competencies and standards of performance establishing behavioral indicators for specific job positions

ATTITUDE

The mindset that underpins the way a person feels, thinks and acts

BEHAVIOIUR

The way a person feels thinks and acts. It is the key word in Competency context. Behaviour is observable through set of actions demonstrating a competency.

TRAIT

A distinguishing characteristic of personality, behavioral style or tendency

KNOWLEDGE

Intellectual and information capital which includes facts, data, procedures and experiences collective organizations

SKILL

Doing and performing an activity, demonstrating competency to meet set performance standards

DRIVERS OF

LEADERSHIP SUCCESS

A research conducted by CCL (Centre for Creative Leadership) by surveying senior

managers and Leaders, to know what drives leadership success. There were four findings:

Strategic Management, Personal Character, Process Management and People Management. The research found that the degree of responses

was: 13%, 35%, 12% and 49% respectively.

KEY DRIVERS OF LEADERSHIP SUCCESS

Generally we have great strategies but lack competencies to implement the strategies. You can not implement III Generation strategies for II Generation

Organisation with I Generation Mindset – Sumantra Ghoshal

People Management and Personal Characteristics form the key drivers of Leadership success, than strategic expertise or process

mastery.

Visionary Companies do different things. Most of it is related to ‘People’ and ‘Personal’ areas.

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What is not competency?

Competency is not performance. Competency is that which bring out performance. Workmen can not perform to standards without competencies. But competencies stated cannot guarantee that workers will perform adequately. Zero defect production run is not a competency. It is result of manufacturing process. The competency of operational expertise must be used to achieve zero defect. Competency has cause and effect relationship with results and it should not be confused as process output.

Competency generally is termed as a combination of Knowledge, Skill and Attitude. Let us analyse the competency of a Marketing executive.

1. He has the market knowledge and understands the pricing dynamics. (Knowledge)

2. He sets up a product introduction project (Skill)3. Meets all the commitments in timely manner (Attitude)

However, the results indicate the project failure. Why? The combination of the above three aspects are not competencies. To display behaviour of competency he must

1. Use the understanding of market pricing dynamics to develop suitable prising models

2. Position a new product introduction so that it is clearly differentiated in the market

3. Acts in full understanding of human behaviour and expectations. Manages emotion of self and others valuing individual differences and achieves commitments

Can Do / Will Do Evaluation

This is a popular performance analysis tool to look at improving employee performance.

Can Do/ Will Do category is an ideal situation where encouragement and reward is the key.

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Can’t Do

Will Do

Won’t Do

Can DoMotivation is the

‘intent’ which drives the

Knowledge, Skill and Attitude to

perform an action displaying behaviours

Motivation emerges from

underlying characteristics of a

person

Can’t Do/ Will Do indicate competency gap and development/training is the key.

Can Do / Won’t Do indicates presence of skills but not motivated which calls of counselling.

Can’t Do / Won’t Do case, has deficiency in both skills and motivation resulting in Job-in-jeopardy situation.

Hire for academic skills has become an old adage. The crusade now is to hire right people with right behaviour. Since excellence is always confined to few, it is big challenge to find out who is effective and who is not. The best way is to observe superior performers and achievers. How they perceive, behave and act upon challenges brings out the indicators of competencies.

Long term Job success and uninterrupted performance excellence doesn’t result without right motives and values of the ‘underlying characteristics’. Some people are more effective than others. Competency is the key factor that distinguishes success and failure or superior performance and average performance. The same is true with organisations as well. Most organisations have great plans and strategies and the research shows that over 70% of the reason for Organisational failure is not deficiency of strategy or technical know- how, but it is lack of competencies to implement strategies, to execute goals.

Competent people add value and the incompetents destroy value. People with developed competencies maximize return on investment since they understand the task and do things with commitment to win.

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Competencies encompassCompetencies encompass

What is Competency?

that promote higher performance in individuals and organizations

that promote higher performance in individuals and organizations

Knowledge and Skills are visibly displayed in a situation or an interaction. Those are easy to learn and assess. The one layer of underlying characteristics is what one thinks about one-self, the confidence or motivation to do things. Beneath this lies, what this the persona of how this person has responded to similar situation or information. Is he able to see the whole picture in the mind’s eye? The ‘intent’ drives knowledge and skill to perform. The ‘intent’ cannot be seen but one can observe that in a displayed behaviour. So, which behaviour results final event is the central focus.

Competencies distinguish excellent performers from others. Follow up for customer contact or answering customer’s inquiry accurately are not a competencies. Building rapport with a customer to resolve a critical issue is a competency.

Programming skills, Managing Information systems, Creative writing or engineering are Functional competencies. Self-management, Emotional Maturity, Inspiring others is Behavioural competencies. What get you hired are functional competencies and what take you up are behavioural competencies.

Competency Elements

Competencies generally have a title, a summary statement of definition and a set of behavioural indicators. The behavioural indicators are also represented in levels of maturity and difficulty. Example: Competency -Communication / Presentation. Promotes ideas effectively (Level 4), Explains concepts at appropriate level of understanding (Level 3), Clarifies and formalizes agreements (Level 2), Guides discussion to a desired end point (Level 1). From top Level 1 to down Level 2 the behaviours indicate different levels that are relevant to organisational culture and practice. Behavioural descriptors are used for deciding job fit, defining a job, providing a career path or assessing a person against a position.

Why competencies are required?

Competencies are required to achieve excellence, enhance performance, face challenges successfully, get desired results and optimize performance. The survey conducted by Centre for Creative Leadership brings out four major reasons for leadership success: People Management, Personal Characteristics (, Strategic Management and Process Management, in that order. People Management and Personal Characteristics being the top drivers of leadership, both are evidently connected to business success. James C Colliuns and Jerry I Porras brings out the fact that visionary companies have produced cumulative stock return of $6356 in 1990 for an investment of $1 in 1926 (Built to Last). Visionary companies do things different and most of it is related to ‘People’ domain.

What competencies actually do?

“You can not implement third generation strategies, for second generation organisation with first generation mind set,” said Sumantra Ghoshal.

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Application of competencies will raise the bar of organisational performance. They provide stable measures of success of career path. Also helps to define empowerment, accountability, and succession planning and performance standards. Competency model represent the engine that drives integrated performance management system.

How many competencies must be in a model?

Career architect of Lominger Inc. has 67 competencies and most of the current organisations realize that lesser the number better the usage. The optimum number can range between 5 to 25. After interviewing 5000 people with multiple career specialties in over 60 F500 companies, identified are these 14 competencies that distinguished successful performance at all levels.

Continuous learning, Initiative and risk taking, honesty and integrity, flexibility, self-confidence (Personal Competencies), Judgment and problem solving, team work, creativity / innovation / change (Team competencies), Responsiveness to internal/external customers, planning and organizing and quality results orientation (operational). The 14 competencies are in 3 groups of Personal, Team and Operations. In the same way, competency models are built for organisation based on what competencies they need to achieve their long-term objectives.

Understanding the concept of a Competency

Each competency reflects three intrinsic elements that are integrated. It shoots up form the ‘Motive’, there is an ‘action’ and finally ends with a ‘result’. The following diagram indicates these intrinsic elements relate in case of a competency: Empathy

Empathy is a competency. It is about understanding and entering into another's feelings. Empathy is felt and seen as a person with this competency used it. It is an outcome of a competency used. It is known from the behaviour where one shows concern and listens well. That is the behaviour and action part of the competency. This action and behaviour emanates from the underlying experience of a person in dealing with people and his ability to sense perceptions of others. The action and behaviour demonstrating the competency is connected to the intention and motive of persons.

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EmpathyEmpathy

Shows Concern , Listens well

Experience in dealing with people, sensing perceptions of others

Beliefs, Attitudes, values, options/Assumptions

about others

Level of emotional involvement, anxiety/Comfort

level towards others

Competency Display/Visibility

Behaviour

Motive Intent

Action

Outcome

Different Types and Levels of Competencies

To illustrate, let us examine competencies of two people. One is a neurosurgeon (NS) specialized in brain surgery and the other is a computer technician (CT) who is an expert in maintenance of computer hardware. Their job similarities are both work pm brains which are essential to functioning of the ‘system’. Their jobs differ since the compute technical works alone and the neurosurgeon works with other surgeons, nurses and attendants. Both must have some common competencies such as : ‘system’ orientation to conduct diagnosis, fine muscle control to operate with precise movements in small spaces, ability to take initiative to find additional information needed to solve problems to repair or maintain the ‘system’, accurate understanding of own abilities/, must know when to call on others to help or transfer the ‘client’ to another practioner.

Each also must have some competencies that differ from the others. The CT must have ‘efficiency’ to ‘fix’ the computer by solving the problem as quickly as possible. The repairs should involve a minimum loss of computer functioning time, minimum time spent and a minimum replacement of parts. CT can also take moderate risks in attempting solutions, maximizing effort at the repair based on the needs of the computer user. Each use a different body of knowledge

The NS must take minimum amount of time during the surgery but cannot take moderate risks and seek shortcuts that might work as a means to desired results. Neither the NS nor the patient can afford experimentation. Though efficiency is important, NS cannot afford to take risks. NS must have efficiency to work with team. The key difference: Risk orientation and ability to manage work of others.

How do competencies differ from skills and knowledge?

Competencies only include behaviours that demonstrate excellent performance. Therefore, they do not include knowledge, but do include "applied" knowledge or the behavioural application of knowledge that produces success. In addition, competencies do include skills, but only the manifestation of skills that produce success. Finally, competencies are not work motives, but do include observable behaviours related to motives.

BEHAVIOURAL INDICATORS

The most important evidence of competency is behaviours. Behaviours can be physical actions or verbal statements. Behaviours are directly observable from the actions of Competent people. Outstanding people display their behaviours more often, in more situations and derive better results.

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Behaviour impacts three aspects. Context, Action and Outcome. Context of an actions takes in the people associated, resources available, technology complexity, deadlines and such variables. Deep understanding of context is necessary to decide to executive action. What action taken or not taken decides the consequences of result. Behaviour indicators will show us the impact of action on the result and also how it influenced and affected the given context.

“I was in a rush to meet the dead lines of despatch and missed out a small item” (Action exists but did not affect the context and the outcome is negative)

CAREER DERAILORS

Certain behaviours or personal characteristics will cause obstruction to career and make people to fail moving up.

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Competency Based Interview or Behavioral Interview

Competency based interview is a structured interview that is used to collect

information about past behavior and performance. As past performance is a predictor of future performance, a behavioral interview attempts to uncover the past performance by asking open-ended questions. Each question helps the interviewer learn about the past performance in a key skill area that is critical to success in the position for which a candidate is interviewing.

Using the STAR Technique

In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will ask questions about past experiences of a candidate using STAR technique. The STAR technique is a way to elicit answers to each question in an organized manner that will give the interviewer the most information about the past experience of candidate.

What was the Situation in which you were involved?

What was the Task you needed to accomplish?

What Action(s) did you take?

Following are some structured guidelines for conducing interviews effectively

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Step 1: General Guidelines

Arrange for a quiet location free of interruptions.

Put the candidate at ease. Create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and use a conversational rather than interrogative tone.

Listen actively. Communicate interest and attentiveness both verbally and non-verbally.

Check your understanding when needed.

Use open-ended questions that will allow the person to really, tell you something about themselves.

Keep an open mind.

Avoid snap judgments and try to maintain objectivity about the interviewee’s ability to do the job.

If you are perplexed or surprised at the person’s behavior or statements, ask questions to be sure you truly understand.

Create a positive impression of your organization and yourself.

The interviewee should feel that he or she is being treated with consideration, fairness and professionalism.

Be sensitive to physical and cultural differences.

Step 2: Plan your interview

Review the Job Description and the candidate's resume. Carry required Interview materials i.e, JD, Competencies, Assessment Form etc.

Figure out how much time you will devote to probing for competencies. BestPractice is to probe for 2-3 competencies, allowing about 10 minutes per Competency.

Prioritize the competencies. Pick the 2-3 competencies that seem most relevant to the position you are interviewing for, and rank them in terms of importance.

Some Useful Open-Ended Interview Questions:

What interests you about this position? Tell me about your last job. What did you like most/least about your last job? What's most important to you in a work environment? What particular skills, abilities or background do you think would make you a good fit

for this position? What are your longer-term career goals? How would this position fit

with those?

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Step 3: Conduct the Interview

1. Zero in on what seems significant.

Ask for an overview of the event so you can get a sense of what to follow up on. Get the background before you get into the details. What was the context of this event? How did you become involved? What was the end point? How did it turn out? The event may be a single meeting, a project spanning several months, or anything in between.

Examples:

Tell me more about how you got involved. You mentioned a meeting with the consultant; tell me more about that. Take me into that discussion. What was your role?

If it is not clear to you what you should follow up on, ask the candidate to tell you what part was significant. For example: “Is there some part of that project that stands out for you as significant—a milestone or decision point that you were involved in?”

Ask for events within the past two years, if possible, in which the candidate played an active part. More recent is better, so the candidate can remember details. Give the candidate time to think of an event or situation that addresses your question.

Be patient and supportive. Most people are not used to this style of interviewing and it can be awkward

2. Keep the candidate focused on actual past events.

Keep questions brief, specific, and in the past tense.

Examples:

What did you do then? What were you thinking when she said that? What did you say? How did you feel when that happened? What led up to that decision? What happened next?

Ask for dialogue. If the person can’t remember, say “Give me a sense of the conversation.

(”If you are getting generalities, philosophizing or hypothetical actions (e.g. "Well, the way we used to approach it was to…."), bring the candidate back to the specifics (e.g. "What did you do in this case?”).

Keep the focus on relevant stories. If the candidate starts into a story that clearly will not provide evidence of the competency you are interested in, remind him or her of

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the starting question, and restart with the same question (or an alternative starting question, if there is one). For example: Remember that we are interested in a time that you needed to convince someone to change his or her mind. In the situation you started to tell about, it sounds like you weren’t directly involved in the convincing. Is that right? Can you tell me about another time you did that?

After focusing on each event or part of an event, follow up with probing questions to get more information about the candidate’s behavior in that event.

Take brief notes. If more than one person is conducting the interview, it can be helpful to have one person do the probing and another person do the note taking.

3. Keep the candidate focused on his/her role in those past events.

If the candidate is talking about what “we” did, ask, “What was your role in that?”

If you are still not getting clear information about what the candidate did, stop him or her and say, "I'd like you to stay with what you yourself actually did."

4. Probe for thoughts and feelings behind actions.

Examples:

How did you reach that conclusion? How did you know to do that? What was your reaction to that? What were you thinking at the time? What were you thinking before going into that meeting? What did you find satisfying/frustrating about that?

Questions about feelings or reactions can provide a lot of information about what a candidate values or is motivated by.

5. Keep your responses to a minimum.

In order to make the best use of time, say no more than necessary to keep the candidate on track. It's fine to be reassuring if the candidate seems uncomfortable, but try to avoid verbalizing your own reactions (e.g. agreeing or disagreeing, expressing surprise or approval, telling related stories, etc.). You don't want the candidate to know your feelings or reactions to what they are saying. Instead, focus on learning more about the candidate's behavior in the event.

Refrain from asking “leading questions” - questions that point a candidate towards a

particular answer, or express a bias or judgment.

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Leading Questions Better Questions

Tell me what kind of preparation you did for the meeting.

Didn't you check with anyone else before making a decision?

What did you say to them when they criticized your proposal?

Tell me about events leading up to the meeting.

Could you say more about how you ended up making that decision?

What happened next?

6. Keep track of time.

Keep an eye on your budgeted time. If you are not getting any useful information, you can stop probing about a given event and either ask for a new story to address the question, or move to another starting question.

At the end of the interview, give the candidate a chance to ask any questions or add anything else relevant about his or her experience or qualifications.

Step 4: Assess What You Heard

Immediately after each interview, review your notes or confer with your colleagues about the following:

What evidence did you hear for each competency that you specifically probed for?

What were the actions, thoughts or feelings that you think provided evidence

of each competency? How strongly did you hear that competency (i.e. did you hear some ambiguous evidence once, or clear evidence several times)? Remember that listening for competencies in this sort of interview is as much art as science.

There will very likely be some evidence that you can't clearly match up with a competency, or is ambiguous or unclear. That's okay. If something seems significant anyway, take note of it.

What other competencies from the specified Job Competencies did you hear evidence of?

Sometimes you might hear more about a competency you weren't specifically looking for than about the competency that your question was aimed at. That's fine, and can be important information in itself.

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What other things of interest did you hear?

Within the stories that the candidate told, there will likely be information about skills, abilities or expertise that may be relevant to the position.

NOTE: Some people aren't good at being interviewed for competencies. A

particular candidate may have difficulty remembering relevant stories, or may have difficulty giving good, concrete, first-person information from which you can infer competencies. If that happens, you can't necessarily conclude that the candidate does not demonstrate those competencies. The best you can do is to say that you are not sure, and to rely on other sources of information.

SPECIMEN COMPETENCY DEFINITION

TEAM WORK

Definition

Ability to work with others to accomplish desired team outcome. Developing team members by providing opportunities to effectively work and contribute. Capability to recognise team stregth, value of diversity, opportunity to build and capture potential to achieve best results.

Behavioural Descriptors

is able to work in and lead a range of different teams to achieve a desired outcome;

recognises the opportunity for team working and building teams;

develops individuals as team members, identifying team strengths and weaknesses;

able to work with others to ensure cumulative contributions and enable teams to manage themselves effectively;

acts as an advisor to teams, often mentoring the team leader if required;

recognises the value of the diversity within teams and how that can be captured to achieve best results.

Behavioural interview Questions

Gaining the cooperation of others can be difficult. Give a specific example of when you had to do that, and what challenges you faced. What was the outcome? What was the long-term impact on your ability to work with such people?

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Please give me a best example of working cooperatively as a team member to accomplish an important goal. What was the goal or objective? What was your role in achieving this objective? To what extent did you interact with others on this project?

Tell me about a time when your coworkers gave you feedback about your actions. How did you respond? What changes did you make?

Describe a project you were responsible for that required a lot of interaction with people over a long period of time.

How have you recognized and rewarded a team player in the past? What was the situation?

Tell me about a course, work experience, or extracurricular activity where you had to work closely with others. How did it go? How did you overcome any difficulties?

Describe a problem you had in your life when someone else’s help was very important to you

KNOWLEDE MANAGEMENT / SHARING

Definition

Ability to set up an organisational process that synergises data and infomration

criticla to organisation. Talent for capturing creative and innovative capacity of

humanbeings and sharing for orgnisational adaption, survival and core competence.

Behavioural Descriptors

Makes effort in acquiring new knowledge and shares job related information

Applies new knowledge and shares with team

Uses strategies to increase knowledge base of team members

Anticipates need for new knowledge and skills and takes intiative to learn

Seeks new knowledge from multiple sources and seamelessly adapts and helps others to apply new knowledge and skills in all job areas

Behavioural interview Questions

Tell me about a time when you had engage yourself in acquiring, sharing and storing a specific knowledge. What was that? What process you followed? What were the challenges?

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KM can be defined as an effort to make the 'know how' in people’s heads and to make sure that it is accessible and available to the entire organization. In this context can you share your own experience by citing a situation?What methods you recommend for knowledge storage and safety? What systems you believe in to follow?

Considering the general knowledge flow restrictions such as ‘no time to share’ or ‘not willing to share’ etc., how do you ensure that knowledge transfer ‘happens’ in your area of work

What methods or systems you suggest, or believe in to ensure consistent acquisition of knowledge?

What is the effective way to ensure that knowledge acquired is applied at work?

How do you ensure that the juniors are groomed to learn? What measures do you take to ensure that?

Employee’s Guide toEmployee’s Guide to

CompetencyCompetency DevelopmentDevelopment

With competent – incompetent – overdr iven indicatorsWith competent – incompetent – overdr iven indicators

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....... competency model has a bifocal vision of enhancing people effectiveness by addressing individual competency gaps/developing new competencies and achieving organizational effectiveness continuum. ....... leaders and managers must constantly make effort to have right people with right competencies in right places to help ....... to achieve its mission and vision by using its values and business strategies. The ....... leadership competencies are developed following the competency research guidelines, by interacting with selected executives and employees representing all the key functions from each of the units.

The key position holders and the employees representing the cream of ....... operations and support departments were the input providers. These inputs formed a huge data pool of behaviors of performance excellence; it was duly captured in behavioral event interviews and competency model familiarization programs, conducted involving representatives and heads of the units.

Similarly functional /technical competencies were also captured by interaction with different levels of each department to complete scripting of the competency dictionary. One must understand the components and behavioral indicators of each of these competencies, which enable development focus, define learning activity and appropriately address compentency gaps. It is important to review this before we move on to the next area of competency development and coaching.

This guide is designed for the people who have accepted their limitation or weakness and firmly decided to learn to develop or improve themselves in the areas of work or personal life. The ....... behavioural competencies can be applied to any employee at any level. ....... values are the basic requirements for every employee.

It is mandatory to identify minimum three competencies or values for each ....... employee.

The manager and the associate must clearly understand the identified competencies by carefully going through the definitions, behavioral indicators and development tips provided in this manual. Managers must also ensure to put in place a 360 DFB system for the eligible employees and help the participant employee to identify the feed back sources. The development plan of an employee will have inputs from 360 DFB also. It is essential to build a performance culture where in the employees move up to a new position not by chance, but by developing and demonstrating new competencies.

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Bifocal Vision of the

Model

winning behaviours

winning behaviours

Identify 3 Competencies

a year

Why this Guide?

The responsibility for executing a development plan lies with the manager who would set clear time frames for all the PMS activities.

Amar and Zameer are at the age of 26, have the same IQ, skills and say 100 units of behavioral and functional competencies. Both of them are graduates and hold a postgraduate diploma in fashion technology. Both of them had joined different organizations and were paid almost similar compensation as supervisors in the year 2001. During 2003 both have moved up in their salary and position. Amar sits back feels happy proud and comfortable with his progress and achievement at the same time Zameer's fire is flaming up within him. He becomes more attentive and watches all the changes around him and within him. He decides to build on new skills and widens his shoulder to take on more responsibilities. He is excited about multitasking and enjoys sharing his thoughts with others influencing them to move as well. In the process he is more thrilled about the vast opportunities and breadth and depth of ocean of learning.

During 2006 Zameer's continued acquisition of new competencies at a compounded rate over time grows at the rate of 6%. Amar grows at only 1% per year.

Just compare the difference between a bank account of over 20 years earning, 3% V/S 8%. Similarly the career related capability of Amar at the age of 26 would be at 1% annual growth. Zameer will have 6% annual growth. At the age of 50 both Amar and Zameer are in two different leagues. Amar now is heading a unit of 300 employees and Zameer is a group technical director.

How did Zameer Succeed? There could be several reasons. But the main reason is, he had the attitude and behaviors to keep up with the environment. Leaning became a way of life for Zameer. The world around is perpetually complex and unstable. Zameer perceived this and became a continuous learner to adapt himself in his work and personal environment.

At one time recruitment was a challenge, but today there is an additional challenge of retention. We are constantly impacted by the changes around us. These changes reach us in the form of challenges. The method and strategy adopted to interact with and lead people of 70`s or 80`s will not yield the same best results today. The competencies required to develop for moving up the ladder are also changing.

Technological changes constantly demand us to learn new things to catch up with the day-to-day work process. Developing a new competency is driven by a natural

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Story of Amar and Zameer

Process of Learning

Changing Times

process. It is not easy because what needs to be learnt is sometimes unlearning. This demands a change in certain behaviors and revalidating our approach to change management. It is a natural process in the time sense of sowing and reaping, learning algebra before calculus or crawl and learn to stand before walking.

It is important to remember that each one of us is in different stages of growth and maturity levels in intellectual, emotional and spiritual areas. Hence comparisons could be dangerous. Every one has to start learning new competencies from where he is, picking up the thread where he left. Unfortunately there is no short cut to learn leadership competencies. This is also applicable to functional competencies, which are acquired only by following a step-by-step process proved to be efficient. What comes in the way of learning competencies must be tackled. Personal image, power consciousness and social mirror sometimes restrict our learning capability. Learning process is a straightforward activity and not an imitation of appearing to be learning. Learning is a value and it is clear honest and up front unlike trickery and duplicity, which are disvalues.

When a manager and his associate identifies a competency for development, they need to analyse the selected competency carefully, to set learning agenda. Competencies are comprised of different components. For instance, the competency negotiation has a skill component, experience component besides other components such as emotion, complexity and attitudes/belief. Before finalizing a development plan to learn ‘negotiation’ a manager must identify the specific component such as skill, emotion or attitude (Ex: knowledge and skills- needs to learn basic negotiation skills, attitudes and belief-can apply negotiating knowledge and skill to work situation. emotion-strongly wants to succeed and win in negotiation.) .

Knowing the components of a competency will help development decisions.

The component ‘skills’ are like software hardwired to brain. If the skill is more complex it is harder to develop competency. The competencies such as interpersonal relations, planning and prioritizing, teamwork can be developed focusing more on the skill component. Such competencies can be developed through training, by reading, coaching and on providing tips.

The experience component is something, which has to be acquired and get proper exposures to learn the lessons of success and failures. Decision-making, integrity and ethics draws in experience component

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Start from where you

are

Defining Learning Agenda

The Skill Component

Experience Component

more than other components. One way to develop such competencies is to provide part time assignments.

Our assumptions and attitudes form a powerful internal motherboard of belief network. Some competencies depend on a person’s attitude, values, opinions and beliefs.

Competencies such as nurturing human talent, emotional maturity, empowerment and delegation etc depends more on beliefs and attitudes. Hence these competencies can be developed by power coaching and mentoring, helping an individual to reflect within and discover the need to change.

Some competencies depend on person’s intellectual abilities, doing complex parallel processing or multi tasking. Quality consciousness, customer focus, managing performance and change management are the competencies where in the perceived importance is more on multitasking. One of the best way to manage multitask is to use a suitable tool such as ERP, Microsoft outlook or get assistance from some people to manage storage memory requirement and processing speed.

A competency coach operates on a clear understanding of causal flow of competencies. The causal flow model can be represented in a simple equation;

Behavior +Actions= results

The behavior encapsulates the intension, willingness of a person to carry out work, his motive and self-concept. It drives the action part, which consists of functional knowledge, skill and execution. This combination produces outcome. Hence it is important to identify which behavioral or functional aspects yields desired results.

The Causal flow links employee capability and the final results. Employee capability is known by analyzing how capable is an employee at a given time and where he would like to move up by developing competencies required to achieve job demands. The difference between where I am and where I want to be is the competency gap, which should be addressed by a developmental plan.

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Attitude Component

Tough Areas

Multi Tasking Component

Causal Flow

Input for Development

Plan

An individual aspirant must ask himself whether he is clear on what he should accomplish and what his organization wants;

What he needs to learn and how it helps;

How would he learn – what should he do to develop and what is the learning model.

Answers to these questions become the input for development plan.

While developing competencies, care must be taken to avoid over use of competencies, which are detailed for each of the ....... competencies in the annexure. Research shows that competencies such as integrity-, ethics, planning and customer focus are some of the most commonly used competencies.

Before proceeding on a development plan managers secure awareness and acceptance of an employee on his or her development needs. Once an employee understands and accepts a developmental need and honestly aspires to change, half of the problem is solved.

The next part is to draw an individual development plan and execute the same. A 360-degree feedback of a manager will certainly help him/her to focus on development areas, which are indicated by the majority of the 360DFB respondents. The objective of the 360 DFB is to read, understand, accept and do something about it for improvement.

The Lominger`s researched development model suggests six sequential steps. In an initial level an employee is clueless about his development needs.

At level 1, he becomes aware of some needs as perceived by others for his development.

At level 2, one accepts one’s own the developmental needs

At level 3, one is motivated to fix the issue and acts on a development plan, approaches a coach and so on.

At level 4, one would be working hard on a set plan, building and acquiring a new competency.

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Select the Specific

Competency

What Accounts for Personal

Change

Inputs from 360 DFB

6 Sequential Steps of

Development

At level 5, one blends the competency learned and attempts to do that well at work.

And finally at level 6 good things will happen showing up desired results.

While all the 20 ....... competencies can be used for obtaining feedback in some special cases, it is suggested to select most specific ones applicable to business. The most common competencies, which are subjected to 360-degree analysis, are-Communication, listening, Problem solving, change management, team work, integrity and ethics, leadership vision etc

It is also important to know the relationship between learning capability and weight of knowledge. The research shows that the learning capability of people tapers down as their knowledge base is expanded.

Managers can decide developmental activities after carefully analyzing the proposed activity and how it helps in developing a competency.

If an employee is assigned with a specific task with an event of success or failure an employee will have an opportunity to develop competencies such as problem solving and leadership vision. To improve interpersonal relations a person may be asked to work with a new set of people or more number of people. If one needs to enhance “initiative ” competency he should be given tough deadlines and work, involving heavy travel and longer hours.

To improve “innovation” competency in an employee a manager can provide all inputs with one or two critical aspects missing, which makes a person to discover the missing parts to resolve by putting the puzzle pieces together.

By providing an opportunity to work under a significant boss the competencies such as decision-making, leadership vision, self-discipline or accountability can be enhanced.

Reflecting on the global practices and research 70% of the successful companies invest resources on developmental actions by providing work assignments whereas that of average companies is 10%. The % of investment on training courses is in the ratio of 3:7 in respect of successful and average companies. But spending resources on coaching, mentoring and feedback is almost of similar magnitude in both the

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Selecting Competencies for 360 DFB

Know Learning Capability

Creating Development Activity

Don’t ‘Feed All’ – make them discover!

Research data on Developmental Activities

cases. The key factor that triggers learning is the willingness to learn. Willingness to learn generates positive thoughts, which helps an employee to develop faster yielding better results.

As David J Schwartz in his book Magic of thinking big exclaims "Mind is a thought factory with two foreman in charge of production. They are Mr. Triumph and Mr. Defeat. While Mr. Triumph is in charge of manufacturing positive thoughts, Mr. Defeat emanates negative and depreciating thoughts.”

To summarise, a manager can help his associate to identify two or three ....... competencies/Values. This can be done carrying out skill gap analysis, reviewing performance appraisal, performance interview data or looking at the summary of 360-degree feedback. Analyse each competency and its components to decide on cost effective development actions. To get a competency-based program, learning/ opportunity designed, one can make use of development centers, provide self-development resource guides or computer aided video assisted programs. Mentoring, coaching, train the trainer and continuous development competency programs is however compulsory for ensuring developmental actions.

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Mr Triumph and Mr Defeat

Summing Up…

1. Team Work

CompositionIdeal Team work is a combined effort of individual accomplishments. “Together Everyone Achieve More” is the key message. Those organisations who only reward individuals would fail to develop a team culture. Team work is the best way to integrate different tasks for a common goal by cutting across boundaries. Succcess of team building lies in identifying job roles, challenges and rewards with a team than with individuals.

Competence conceptAbility to work with others to accomplish desired team outcome. Developing team members by providing opportunities to effectively work and contribute. Capability to recognise team stregth, value of diversity, opportunity to build and capture potential to achieve best results.

Incompetence ImageComfortable with with one-on-one and not with groups or teams. Avoids holding team meetings or team participation. Do not create team challenges to energise team. Instead of trusting a team, prefers to control and move on to individual actions.

Overdr iven Competence Takes only team approach and underplays individual values and trust. Over democratic and waits for overal team inputs and deliberaions. Fails to develop pipeline leaders and may not retain best talents. In the process of holding on to team work individuals may be distressed.

Tips to develop th is Competency As a manager, keep the focus of Performance Management Process in mind

since you are more responsible for team/division/departmental output than managing one individual.

People work better when goals and defined and alingned and would liketo measure how they are progressing. The starting point is to focus on team objectives and then define individual goals. On deciding the team/division/departemental objective creat a plan and encourage team members to draw individual plans in alignment

Enrich people with challenging work and teams with challenging tasks.

Different folks need diiffrent strokes ! Deal with individual focus but remember to be fair to all.

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Normaly people judge before understanding. Learn the Habit 5 ‘Seek first to understand, Then to be understood’. Understanding is not necessarity aggreeing. It is imiportant to empathize and interpret what the team or a member desires and help them to learn, know more by investing your own time.

If you face conflicting goals from individual members, focus on common goals, priorities and problem of the team objectives and oveal business objecive.

Learn to display sense of joy and humour and create opporunties for the team to have fun celebrating success and wins.

Compensatory Competencies and ReadingFocus on Dr. Covey’s 1st and 5th Habit. Read Tom Peter’s ‘Thriving on Chaos’ or Robert Bolton’s ‘People Skills’

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