112 / TAKING UP YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE
Using competencies
Emulating the greats
Bookstores are lined with the biographies of famous
leaders that tell us how they acted and dealt with
adversity. A lesson that emerges from their life
stories is that you lead from who you are. To lead
effectively, you must be comfortable in your own
skin and live a life according to your own principles.
So, as much as you may admire Gandhi or Che
Guevara, you can’t copy them—this will give rise
to inconsistent behaviors that will be interpreted
as indecisiveness or insincerity.
Setting objective targets
A more realistic way to shape your aims as a leader
is through competencies. These short describers
set out the behaviors we would like to see in
ourselves as leaders. Competencies define what
effective performance as a leader looks like and—
through self-assessment and feedback—help
leaders to identify their development needs. You
can refer to and use a standard set of leadership
competencies to review your current performance
and set objectives, or devise your own after carrying
out suitable research and consultation.
How can you define what you need to become an effective leader? You
may get some inspiration from the lives of great business, political, and
military leaders of the past. However, a more reliable way of shaping
your objectives is to use competencies—descriptions of performance
outputs that characterize leadership in your organization.
Competencies define
what effective
performance as
a leader looks like
and help leaders
identify their
development needs
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USING COMPETENCIES / 113
Writing your own competencies
Using a set of standard competencies—
such as on the next pages—to define
leadership roles may well be appropriate
to you. Alternatively, you can identify
and list competencies by learning from
others’ experience—this is just one of the
many benefits of joining a professional
body for managers or leaders. The
best option, however, would involve
developing your own competencies—
ones that would accurately target your
company’s objectives and values.
PUTTING COMPETENCIES
TO WORK
The Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development (CIPD), a leading
professional institute in the UK,
wanted to define the behaviors of an
effective leader. With involvement of
the management team and a cross
section of staff from all departments,
eight core leadership competencies
were identified and published in an
internal document. A five-year
leadership development program
was designed to develop managers’
competencies. Development
reviews, feedback, and self-
assessment, measured the
progress of managers through
a wide range of activities. The
program included tailored
workshops, case studies, action
learning sets, executive coaching,
and cross-functional projects that
developed leadership and helped
the organization move forward its
strategic plan.
Case study
Objectives
10
competencies should
be all you need to target
company objectives
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114 / TAKING UP YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE
Involving others
When writing competencies for leaders,
involve a cross-section of people in your
organization. Start the discussion with
them by asking the question, “What does
being effective as a leader look like?”
Then invite everyone to make their own
contributions to the descriptions of the
list of competencies in terms that mean
something to them.
Standard leadership competency
Achieving
excellent
results
Building
relationships
Coaching and
communicating
COMPETENCY DESCRIPTION OF COMPETENCY
Delivers with energy and determination on individual, team,
and overall objectives that address core business issues
and contribute to achieving longer-term sustainable
organizational goals
Behaves in a professional and ethical way
Builds trust, listens to needs, is open to ideas, and sensitive
to the perceptions of others
Questions constructively, identifies options, and develops
solutions by networking and creating relationships with
strategic people and organizations
Is able to work autonomously or in teams, adapt to a wide
range of situations, and appreciate diversity
Remains aware of the needs and concerns of others and
is consistently able to focus on objectives and build
relationships, even when working under pressure or
in the face of personal criticism in challenging situations
Good at selecting the right people with complementary
strengths to work in teams
Communicates a clear vision of the organization’s future
Enthuses and energizes people, is accessible to people,
and gains ownership of the steps needed to achieve goals
Knows own and team members’ strengths and weaknesses
and encourages initiative and accountability for objectives
Invests in coaching others, gives constructive feedback, and
knows when to support and challenge
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USING COMPETENCIES / 115
Following best practice
Combine the input from your colleagues
with the latest research on leadership
best practice, and the knowledge you
have about the future demands on
leaders within the organization. Draft
the competencies with one eye always
on their compatibility with the vision,
values, and main strategic objectives
and aims of the organization.
Continuous
innovation
Lifetime
learning and
knowledge-
sharing
Solving
problems and
taking decisions
Focusing on
customers
COMPETENCY DESCRIPTION OF COMPETENCY
Recognizes problems as opportunities, explores causes
systematically and thoroughly
Generates ideas; weighs advantages and disadvantages
of options
Achieves mutually beneficial relationships with customers
Manages expectations well in all interactions
Anticipates needs and responds with empathy
Keeps up-to-date, shares knowledge and information with
other people, applies this learning to own work
Encourages others to learn, develop, and share knowledge
Experiments with new approaches
Learns from best practice, responds flexibly to change,
and encourages others to question and review how things
are done or could be continuously improved
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116 / TAKING UP YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE
STAGE OF
DEVELOPMENT
Assessing competencies: solving problems
NOT YET
DEMONSTRATED
DEVELOPING
COMPETENT
ROLE MODEL/
COACH
ACTIONS DEMONSTRATED
Has only recently taken up the current role.
Finds it difficult to step back from the day-
to-day operation and engage with others in
creative problem-solving.
Encourages other people to put forward new
ideas. Explores systematically to understand
what is happening and why. Generates ideas
to solve problems and decides on actions.
Actively encourages others to think of problems
and tensions as creative opportunities to
improve service and develop products.
Measuring and developing
After you have drafted the competencies
for a leadership role, you can begin to
use them to develop your organization’s
leaders. The main vehicles for this are
formal appraisals and self-assessment:
•
Make sure the leader knows
and fully understands what the
competencies are.
•
Appoint a “competencies advocate”—
someone to encourage the leader
to use the competencies as a
development tool.
•
Agree the competencies to be used
in appraisals.
•
Train appraisers throughout your
organization in the meaning and
use of competencies.
•
Encourage self-assessment
against the benchmarks set
by the competencies.
When being assessed in an appraisal
or carrying out self-assessment, it
is helpful to recognize four stages of
progress toward competency in a given
area. So, for example, if you were to
assess development in the competency
“Solving problems and taking decisions,”
the results may be as shown below.
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