build a successful firm using a competency model

Hamilton-Chase Consulting

www.hamiltonchaseconsulting.com

Build A Successful Firm

Using A Competency Model Larry Gard, Ph.D.

Why Make Guesses About Key Personnel?

Select, Develop, And Promote Top Talent

Using The Same Advanced Process Employed By

Major Corporations Worldwide.


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Build a Successful Firm Using a Competency Model Larry Gard, Ph.D.

Wish you had a signpost to help you make good decisions about who to hire and who to

promote?

In every business the choices you make about who you

hire, how you develop them, and who moves up in

your organization are among the most important

decisions you’ll ever face. This e-book presents a brief

guide to using Competency Models, an essential tool

for making these decisions measurably more accurate.

Inside you’ll learn how to add depth and precision to

hiring, promotion, and employee development.


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Think about the people you’ve hired or promoted for

management and leadership positions. Chances are,

it was a tough call. Few candidates are perfectly

suited to a position. You’re forced to make complex,

high-impact decisions about individuals and their

futures. Who gets placed in what job? Where should

you invest training dollars? How can you make sure

that key employees will behave in ways that are in

sync with your company’s strategic objectives? Will

your decisions about people translate into improved

organizational performance?

Our view at Hamilton-Chase Consulting

is that having a competency model is the

best way to make these vital decisions

measurably more reliable and valid.


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Profitability is about performance, and performance is about people . . . At the end of the day no matter how outstanding your

produce or service, and no matter how skillfully you

market your business, your profits are only as good as

your people. If you don’t have a well-conceived

Competency Model that specifies exactly what high

performance looks like, how can your firm select,

develop, and promote the most talented people?

More importantly, if you haven’t clearly

identified what separates outstanding

performers from ordinary ones, how can your

firm grow and differentiate itself in the

marketplace?

Your profits are only as good as your people. Do you know how to differentiate

outstanding performers from ordinary ones?


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What is a Competency Model?

A Competency Model defines skills, knowledge,

personal characteristics and abilities needed to

perform in a role and help achieve your company’s

goals. From this perspective, many would argue that

developing a sound competency model is a mission-

critical endeavor for virtually any business that wants

to protect and extend its competitive advantage.

Companies can design and use multiple

competency models if they have jobs or roles that are unique


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What is a Competency?

A competency develops over time as a blend of innate

qualities and learned experiences. It arises from a

combination of who we are and what we’ve been

exposed to in life. The model below provides a useful

way for thinking about competencies:

model developed by Bigby-Havis/Assess Systems

In this model, effective job performance depends on

many elements working together. Over time, innate

factors (such as natural ability and personality

characteristics) combine with learned factors (like

skills) to form competencies. People with a particular

set of competencies will be able to do the right things

(behaviors) to produce the desired results (effective

outcomes).


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Examples of Competencies:

This chart shows some examples from a much broader

library of competencies. Note that they fall into three

categories: how an individual thinks, works, and

relates to others.

Thinking Working Relating

Decisive

Judgment

Delivering Results

Teamwork & Collaboration

In-Depth Problem Solving & Analysis

Planning & Organization

Influencing & Persuading

In order to be useful in a model, competencies need to

be clearly defined in behavioral terms. For example,

people who display Decisive Judgment . . .

“make sound decisions with conviction and

in a timely manner. After they have

considered alternatives and possible

consequences, they can decide upon a

course of action and assume responsibility

for their decisions.”


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Measuring Learned and Innate Factors

How can you predict whether a job candidate will be

able to demonstrate a particular competency? As

mentioned above (see diagram on p. 6) competencies

develop from innate and learned factors. If you can

measure those factors, then you’ll know whether the

candidate has what it takes to display the competencies

you’re looking for. Measuring the learned factors that

contribute to a competency is relatively easy and

straightforward. There are many tools and methods at

your disposal, including specific skill assessments,

structured interviews, and 360-degree feedback.

Unfortunately it’s a little more complicated to reliably

measure the innate factors that contribute to a

competency. Tests that measure personality differ

greatly in terms of how sophisticated and useful they

are. You won’t get very far using a simple test that

classifies people into “types” (e.g. introvert vs.

extrovert). After all, a personality characteristic can be

an asset in relation to one competency, and a liability in

relation to a different competency. Consider the

personality trait of Self-reliance. Self-reliance can be

a good thing when it comes to a competency like

delivering results, but it can hamper teamwork and

collaboration.


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You can’t tell if a candidate will be a good fit with your competency model unless you measure personality the right way . . . You need an approach that goes beyond specifying

how much of a given personality trait you have; you

also have to take into account that for some

competencies you want a lot of a trait, for some you

want a little, and for some you don’t want any. The

link between the personality traits and competencies

is critical because without it, you’ll be measuring

innate characteristics but you won’t be able to draw

meaningful conclusions about real-life behavior. For

example, you might score at the 40th percentile on a

measure of assertiveness, but it’s meaningless unless

we know how that particular score impacts your

ability to display different competencies.

At Hamilton-Chase Consulting, we use and

recommend test instruments from ASSESS

Systems because they do an excellent job of

evaluating how personality impacts on-the-job

competencies. Call Dr. Gard at 312-787-9620

or send us an email (drlgard@hamiltonchase

consulting.com) if you would like to receive a

complimentary sample test report.


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Summary of the major benefits your company can gain by using a Competency Model:

A competency model establishes a definition of high

performance by identifying the critical success factors

(i.e. behaviors, abilities, and attitudes) that differentiate

high performers from ordinary ones. A competency

model also helps a company specify the competencies

(as professionals and more simply, as people) that set

them apart from the competition.

The benefit of establishing and validating a competency

model is that a company no longer has to make an

educated guess about selecting, evaluating, developing,

and promoting key people.

It’s a roadmap for answering questions such as:

Who should be hired?

How should they be developed?

Who is best suited to move up in the organization?

By what criteria do we measure their performance?


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You wouldn’t make decisions about your

company’s future by throwing darts, so why make educated guesses about key personnel?

A well-crafted competency model will help you hit your target.

To learn more about competency models and how

your firm can select and develop top talent, please call

Dr. Larry Gard at (312) 787-9620 or send an email to

[email protected]. Your inquiry

is most welcome.

© 2010 Hamilton-Chase Consulting

build a successful firm using a competency model

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