Measuring Management Competencies

What are Competencies?

Competencies comprise of skills, knowledge and behaviours demanded of people by their jobs or organisations. They are the capabilities which people need to produce competent performance in their environment. In his book ' The Competent Manager' Richard E Boyatzis defined competency as "specific actions leading to specific outcomes". By this definition, competencies are behavioural and consequently, they can be measured and improved. Our competency Enablers are based on sound competency models, they are performance improvement tools which enable people to accurately measure, target and evaluate specific competencies which are critical to their success and achievement.

How are Competencies Measured?

Because competency can be described behaviourally, we have developed behavioural questionnaires for each of the Enablers. The person being assessed carries out a self-assessment by scoring a questionnaire. The similar questionnaire is then also completed by reviewers. Reviewers can be the subject's manager, or the subject's colleagues, or, if the subject is a leader, it can be their team members providing feedback. The questionnaires are scored and fed into a software programme. The programme generates a detailed 7 page report which identifies 3 specific development areas. The report provides graphical comparisons of the different perceptions and responses and enables people to review, agree and target remedial actions. The Enablers caters for feedback from a range of reviewers on an individual basis or provides a full 360 degree feedback.

Focus Areas

The report defines each development area very clearly and goes on to spell out the implications of low scoring. Recommendations for development actions are provided. Enablers select the competency with the largest gap as the primary development area. The report also highlights the lowest agreed and the lowest subject scores. Each competency provides an analysis of how individual behavioural questions were scored by both subject and reviewer(s). All low scoring questions are also identified and set out for discussion in the report. The process requires the subject and reviews to provide 'the evidence' to support their scoring. This evidence is discussed as part of the review process. Practical actions can be agreed and targeted as part of the review.

What are the benefits?

The Enablers act like a rifle shot, they get to the 'heart of the matter'. Performance gaps can be accurately pinpointed, prompting people to get down to problem solving. The tool is particularly useful in helping to deal with issues to do with 'unconscious incompetence'. It expands the degree of self awareness and provides a focused way of linking the person's capability to performance improvement targets. As a result of the definitions, common standards are articulated and adopted by team members. The Enablers are very precise training gap analysis tools. They then move beyond analysis to provide people with practical directions for performance improvement.

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