Houses Built on Sand

The House of Competency

Large organisations devote considerable time, energy and money to developing leadership competency models and rolling these out.  From David McClelland and the early work with McBer in the 60’s, to the present day, this field has been a hot topic.  We see a variety of lists of competencies with sub component descriptions, each somewhat different and yet similar – driving for results, leading others, interpersonal awareness, leading change.

Many are quite complex – for example ‘interpersonal awareness’ would require you to understand the goals and passions of others, notice how others are feeling from their voice tone and body language, respond empathically, as well as anticipate the reaction of others… and that is just for starters!

Often these are quite grand and complex statements of desired leadership performance, that are expressed either as a competency, as a value or as a standards model.

Are we Building on Sand?

In our encounters with many leaders, we find that they often lack one or two of the critical building blocks that underpin many of the stated competencies. For example some are poor or easily distracted listeners, others share their thoughts in a way that is difficult to understand or use too many words, and others are unable to openly express any emotional content in their language.  These one or two behavioural traits become eternal tripping hazards to them.

Build Your House on Rock

We find that whatever the well-intended competency ‘house’, with detailed sub competency behavioural descriptions, there are some even more fundamental level behaviours that are required.

These core foundation behaviours are the ones we practice and feedback upon continuously in all of our leadership and team development programmes. Although simple they are not simplistic, nor are they commonly performed well.

An example is sharing your thoughts and receiving feedback. This is the most common transaction we see in business and it fundamentally powers almost every higher level competency.  By mastering this behavioural rock (or one of the few others), you will no longer be building on sand and be well on your way to better behaviour every day.