Going Beyond the Job Description

Focus: Competencies, plus the job description = success

Going Beyond the Job Description – Competencies are Essential

Wc: 425 – Audio duration: 3 mins. 34 secs.

“profits and growth are about performance and performance is about people – performance is behavior.”

Focus: Management Success, Professional Success

Audio Lesson - Duration: 3 mins. 21 secs.  

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Transcript

Business is really about two things: knowledge and behavior. This may sound strange, but when you think about it, a business cannot exist without pertinent knowledge and behaviors that generate desired results.

So what’s essential to the success of any company?... a conscious determination of what knowledge and behaviors are absolutely necessary (critical success factors) from each contributor for that particular business to be successful.  The behavior piece can be defined in two parts:  skills and competencies.

A skill (the capability to do something well) is usually framed and needed in the context of a job description. Example: someone who has the technical knowledge to create a blueprint of a house.

A competency relates to qualities and capabilities beyond the job description…the make-up of the person in the job (e.g. characteristics/traits, attitudes, beliefs, values, motives, character, emotional maturity, relational effectiveness) and how those elements influence how a job is done.  Example: a customer service employee who is has the emotional maturity to be self-controlled when dealing with a challenging service call.

The examples above are representative of a skill and a competency.  As an effective manager you need to know both, how to distinguish between the two and how to determine them for your role and the roles you are responsible for managing.

Also two additional items of note:

1. Each element (skill and competency) both contribute to the profitability of a company.

2. You’ll rarely find competencies, such as emotional maturity, on a job description.

One can see that in order for a business to stay competitive and profitable three critical assessments need to be made:

1.  A determination of those behaviors needed for the success of the business.

2. A determination of where contributors are in possessing those needed behaviors.

3. A plan to close the gap where needed -

            a. via training and coaching

            b. replacing a contributor with someone who is a better fit.

So the question would be what are the competencies needed in your particular role and that of each of your team members?

Remember, a competency is the way in which the job is done…the qualities of the person who is doing the job.

Action: Make a list of competencies or qualities that are needed for you to do your job successfully.

Then do so for the roles of those you manage.

Next, determine the gaps and incorporate those in your coaching and performance management plan.

This will go a long way in helping to increase the performance of your team and thereby increasing the profitability of you company.