Identifying and developing competencies for career success

July 10 2011

Identifying and developing competencies for career success

By A.V. Vedpuriswar

The emerging paradigm

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¨ Job Security¨ Future

employability

¨ Loyalty¨ Professional

development

Performance ClustersClientPeople / TeamFinancialJob / Process

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Contribution vs Competencies

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Contribution Competencies

¨ Past results ¨ Future results

¨ What to achieve ¨ How to achieve

¨ Easy to measure ¨ Difficult to measure

What are Competencies? A competency is an underlying characteristic of an

individual that leads to superior performance on the job.

A competency is a deep and enduring part of our personality.

Competencies cause behaviour.Competencies also predict behaviour.In simple terms, a competency can be viewed as a

bundle of knowledge, skills and attitude.

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Typical Competencies used by companiesBusiness and Financial

acumenClient FocusCommunicationLearning agilityDrive and commitmentInnovationJudgment and decision

makingLeadershipManaging, developing

talent

• Planning and organising• Problem analysis• Professional behavior• Quality, continuous

improvement• Resilience and stress

management• Strategic and global acumen• Teamwork and collaboration

Brief description of the competenciesCompetency DescriptionBusiness and Financial Acumen

Concerned about business success and profitability and the proper management of financial resources.

Client Focus ¨ Builds and sustains long-term relationships with clients based on mutual understanding, trust and respect.

¨ Identifies and meets client needs in the most effective way.

Communication ¨ Conveys information clearly, accurately and succinctly and adjusts to the audience's needs and requirements.

¨ Uses a range of effective interpersonal skills to influence stakeholders.

Learning agility ¨ Constantly expands own skill set and specific knowledge of business.

¨ Remains abreast of developments in own area.

Brief description of the competenciesCompetency DescriptionDrive and Commitment ¨ Has the determination, effort and

enthusiasm to deliver results. ¨ Energetic, takes the initiative, originates

action and keeps things moving.

Innovation ¨ Challenges the status quo.¨ Generates new ideas and creative

approaches which move the business forward.

Judgement and Decision Making

¨ Selects and uses relevant information to make sound and balanced judgements.

¨ Evaluates the risks of alternative options and makes confident decisions in uncertain situations.

Leadership ¨ Motivates and inspires others by providing a compelling vision of shared goals and objectives.

¨ Is courageous in challenging the status quo.

Brief description of the competenciesCompetency DescriptionManaging and Developing talent

¨ Manages, supports and encourages others through training, empowerment, role modelling and coaching.

¨ Addresses performance issues and creates development opportunities for others.

Planning and Organising

¨ Is personally well organised and keeps focused on priorities in own and others' work.

¨ Develops and monitors realistic action plans to meet objectives using given resources.

Problem analysis ¨ Identifies and examines problems to understand them properly.

¨ Generates options and recommends solutions which are logical, reasonable and realistic.

Professional behaviour

¨ Dependable, reliable and accountable for own behaviour.

¨ Acts within professional, legal and ethical boundaries and guidelines.

Brief description of the competenciesCompetency Description

Quality and continuous improvement

Strives to enhance processes and procedures, to improve quality and efficiency.

Resilience and stress management

Flexible, tolerates changes in methods, approaches and objectives.

Confident in difficult, stressful, ambiguous and challenging circumstances.

Strategic perspectives and global acumen

Demonstrates a broad-based view of business issues, and understands wider implications and long-term impact.

Teamwork and collaboration

Co-operates and collaborates with colleagues inside and outside own area.

Identification of Competencies Look at past behaviourWhat helped?What did not?Correlate behaviors with success on the job.

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CLIENT FOCUS

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Positive Behavioral Indicators

Negative Behavioral Indicators

¨ Responds efficiently and promptly to client enquiries, requests and concerns

¨ Reactive approach to client enquiries, requests and concerns

¨ Keeps in regular contact with key clients

¨ No systematic approach to contacting key contacts

¨ Ask the clients questions to check satisfaction

¨ Little evidence that he/she regularly asks clients questions

¨ Operates with the client needs first

¨ Neglects to consider client needs

¨ Knows who their clients are (internal and/or external)

¨ Has a confused picture of client groups

¨ Reactive approach to client enquiries, requests and concerns

¨ No systematic approach to contacting key clients

COMMUNICATION

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¨ Aware of own (non-verbal) behavior and its impact on others

¨ Unaware of how own behavior is perceived

¨ Uses audience appropriate language

¨ Does not tailor the communication

¨ Presents information clearly and succinctly

¨ Communicates in an unclear and/or longwinded manner

¨ Structures the communications suitably

¨ Communicates ad-hoc

¨ Acknowledges communications and demonstrates an unders-tanding of other’s opinions

¨ Only values own communication

LEARNING AGILITY

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¨ Knows own limits and asks for help/advice when appropriate

¨ Does not recognize the need of help

¨ Shows curiosity about own area/function

¨ Shows little curiosity about own area/function

¨ Invests time and energy in learning new things

¨ Reactive approach to learning

¨ Responds positively to feedback and makes appropriate behavioral changes

¨ Neglects to act on given feedback

¨ Takes development/training opportunities

¨ Does not actively seek development opportunities

DRIVE AND COMMITMENT

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¨ Sees task through to completion to achieve the desired results

¨ Leaves tasks unfinished

¨ Prepares for meetings, reads assigned material and completes agreed work requirements

¨ Does not recognize the benefits of preparation

¨ Demonstrates enthusiasm about making a difference

¨ Shows little passion for own work

¨ Does what is necessary to meet deadlines

¨ Prepared to compromise over standards or deadlines

¨ Volunteers for projects ¨ Takes little initiative to work in new projects

PLANNING AND ORGANIZING

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¨ Effectively prioritizes work according to importance of tasks and deadlines

¨ Works through a task list rigidly and mechanically irrespective of urgent business priorities

¨ Plans, organizes and monitors own day-to-day work

¨ Comes to work unprepared

¨ Uses simple tools and systems to structure personal activities

¨ Lacks structure for personal effectiveness

¨ Escalates issues quickly if they can’t be managed or resolved within agreed time-scales

¨ Fails to escalate potential deadline failures

¨ Meets deadlines by managing time effectively

¨ Manages time ineffectively

PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR

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¨ Ensures work is completed in a timely manner

¨ Show poor time management skills

¨ Accepts responsibility for own decisions and actions

¨ Reluctant to take responsibility

¨ Keeps others informed of possible problems

¨ Fails to escalate potential problems

¨ Knows how to draw the boundaries

¨ Not able to separate professional and private characteristics

¨ Knows when and is prepared to ask for help

¨ Sees asking for help as a personal failure

TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION

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¨ Works to understand the different perspectives of those with varying backgrounds and approaches

¨ Unaware of conflict and / or fails to address it.

¨ Shares information that would be useful to others

¨ Keeps information and favorite tasks to self.

¨ Volunteers to assist co-workers and covers work for others

¨ Works independently of the team.

¨ Understands own role and how this supports other team members, their tasks and objectives

¨ Puts personal agenda ahead of the team goals.

¨ Accepts a variety of roles within the team, as work requires

¨ Little appreciation of the value of team spirit and identity.

PROBLEM ANALYSIS

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¨ Identifies problems and suggests appropriate action to resolve them

¨ Little evidence of problem spotting and root cause analysis

¨ Actively seeks information and advice as appropriate

¨ Fails to take the help of colleagues to solve the problem

¨ Applies lessons learnt from previous experiences

¨ Makes little use of previous experience

¨ Analyses problems referring to relevant policies and procedures

¨ Does not refer to policies

¨ Breaks down problems into straight forward actions and tasks

¨ Adopts a disorganized approach to solving problems

Developing competencies

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Way Development Approach

¨ Knowledge ¨ Reading, Watching , Listening

¨ Innate Characteristics

¨ Attitudes ¨ Training/coaching

¨ Abilities ¨ Practising behaviour

Developing competencies on the job FeedbackCoachingMentoringHead a new projectJoin a task forceJob rotationShadowing / observation

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Thank You

Documents

Identifying and developing competencies for career success