A competency is defined as a knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) needed to perform daily activities. For many years, competencies have been used as a basis for organizations to develop their talent. When you prioritize a group of competencies together through a process I call calibration, you are able to create a competency model that prioritizes each competency according to the need of the organization. Whether an individual wants to stay where they are at in the organization or move up the developmental ladder, the competency model is the starting point to building the foundation for development.
Because every industry, organization, and experience are different, competencies valued and prioritized in the form of a competency model will differ. Therefore, it is always recommended to stay away from off-the-shelf solutions and instead tailor your competency definitions and model to meet the specific needs of your organization.
Once you have personalized your model, you just provided your organization with a valuable tool every individual can use to shape their development. This common framework also allows you to align the organizational needs with that of the individual because they now understand what skills are necessary to succeed in a particular setting, function, occupation, or task in your organization. So, what does it take to create a competency model? Here are four basic elements.
As stated earlier, how you define a particular competency will differ slightly from other organizations if not completely. Many commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions provide you with definitions that are common across multiple industries. But unless you refine those definitions to fit the terms used daily at your organization, you can turn away a lot of team members from accepting the process because the language is different to what they are used to hearing. Therefore, it is always a good idea when building your definitions to refine them to make sure they fit your organization.
I use the term cluster to describe a group of competencies that are placed together based on their relationship on the developmental roadmap. Organizations can define these clusters in many ways. The most common developmental clusters are leading self, leading teams, and leading the organization.
Clusters are a good way of creating tiers to the developmental path starting with a foundational level (competencies that most organizations feel every team member should be proficient at) and then working their way from the individual contributor to the most senior levels of management. If an individual has mastered all of the competencies at the foundational level and through to their current tier of development, they can look to the next cluster of development to prepare them for higher levels of responsibility.
It helps to know how hard it will be to development a competency. By knowing the difficulty level of each competency, you are able to set expectations on the progress and timeline for development. It’s impossible to work on every competency valued by an organization so it is recommended that over the course of a year, an individual will focus on 3-4 competencies.
When you assign a difficulty level to those set of competencies, the individual and supervisor are aware of the difficulty of the development and this helps temper expectations.
Every developmental model should focus on a set of competencies that are valued most by their respective industry and organization. In some cases, I find that many models are too large because organizations try to stuff as many competencies as they can into their model thus making targeting development more difficult. If a competency developmental model is too large, it is harder to communicate and focus on the most immediate needs of the individual and organization. It is therefore recommended that a competency model be around 15-35 competencies in size.
By identifying related competencies to your competencies of choice, you get the benefit of further clarifying your own competencies without watering down the competency model and in turn the application of your post-assessment actions.
Building a personalize model can be daunting if you don’t have the background or experience in this area. Even with experience, experts find themselves, weighed down by the amount of time and effort it takes to complete the calibration process.
But wait, there is good news! The Talent Generator® Competency Framework comes with 60 pre-defined leadership competencies to choose from complete with difficulty levels and recommended clusters. The tool also allows you to select the definitions that define your needs and then allows you to quickly modify your definitions to get it just right. Our save feature also allows you to get it right before locking in your model. From there, you are able to use your own model and definitions to assess the talent on your team or obtain actionable data that will help you acquire, retain, and develop your talent.
Using the Talent Generator® Competency Framework and Tool can give you peace of mind knowing you just created a model and assessment designed meet the needs of every individual on your team and the broader needs of your organization. We invite you to check out the Talent Generator® Competency Assessment Tool on the Talent Generator® website: www.talent-generator.com and get started on personalizing your professional development in a fun and engaging way.
