Introduction to Leadership Competencies
In 1993, Lyle Spencer and Signe M. Spencer published their research in the book "Competence at Work", where they defined competencies as the underlying characteristics of people, which indicate behaviours or thought processes that lead to superior job performance.
AssessioAI Leadership competency library consists of 20 leadership competencies. Leadership competencies, as delineated by Spencer & Spencer, encompass a range of skills, behaviours, and attitudes that contribute to effective leadership.
The significance of leadership competencies in organisations cannot be overstated. In an era marked by rapid change and complexity, the success of an organisation hinges on its leadership's ability to navigate challenges, inspire teams, and drive innovation. Leadership competencies serve as a blueprint for identifying and developing leaders who can thrive in such environments.
AssessioAI Leadership Competency Library
AssessioAI leadership competencies belong into four main categories which are interpersonal skills, results orientation, systems thinking and organisational effectiveness.
Interpersonal skills
1. Interpersonal understanding
Understands the unspoken or partly expressed feelings, goals, and needs of others, and can relate to culturally diverse groups of people.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Works effectively with individuals with different backgrounds and perspectives.
Deliberately involves different people to leverage the benefits of diversity.
Perceives the moods and feelings of others and responds appropriately.
2. Customer focus
Desires to help or serve others, discovers the needs of clients or internal end-users, and takes action with the customer in mind.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Gathers insights from external or internal customers and takes action to meet service standards.
Proactively monitors customer feedback and satisfaction to provide solutions that exceed expectations.
Anticipates and addresses customers' long-term needs with creative and customised solutions.
3. Building relationships
Develops and maintains friendly relationships and builds networks that help achieve current or future professional goals.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Develops strong working relationships with key stakeholders.
Regularly engages in activities to expand their professional network.
Establishes long-term friendly relationships to gather intelligence and identify new opportunities.
4. Teamwork and collaboration
Shows a genuine intention to be part of a team and works cooperatively with others towards collective goals and results.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Shares responsibility and seeks advice and support to deliver results.
Promotes and facilitates collaboration to improve overall team performance.
Commits to long-term initiatives and coordinates collaboration across the organisation.
5. Influencing others
Inspires, influences or impresses people in an honest and respectful manner to gain support and commitment, or have a specific impact on others.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Uses various techniques to negotiate and convince others.
Finds common ground between multiple stakeholders with different agendas.
Rallies support by involving experts and developing compelling arguments.
Systems thinking
6. Conceptual thinking
Identifies underlying issues, puts pieces together to see the big picture, and applies conceptual reasoning to come up with new ideas and unique responses to problems.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Sees patterns and similarities in information and uses these observations to analyse new situations.
Distils the meaning and importance of complex data and presents key points in a way that is understandable.
Develops new concepts based on contextual information.
7. Strategic thinking
Understands industry trends, develops future-oriented scenarios, articulates a compelling vision, and links strategic goals to daily work.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Understands organisation strategy and aligns activities with long-term company goals.
Anticipates emerging trends and is able to articulate possible future scenarios.
Develops complex strategies and communicates them effectively.
8. Information seeking
Makes an effort to gather information to satisfy curiosity and desire to know more, and to enhance skills and abilities by systematically acquiring and sharing knowledge.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Conducts independent research to gain a deeper understanding of relevant topics.
Experiments with different data collection methods to gather necessary information.
Involves others in systematic research efforts to bridge information gaps.
9. Analytical thinking
Understands a complex and ambiguous problem by breaking it apart into smaller pieces, analyses information in a logical and methodical manner.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Uses logical thought processes to draw conclusions and identify patterns in data.
Demonstrates an in-depth understanding of analytical techniques and information modelling.
Applies complex analytical frameworks to identify and share solutions.
10. Technological mindset
Understands technological trends, demonstrates skills in using modern technologies, and applies technical solutions to increase efficiency or solve problems.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Experiments with new technology and demonstrates the value of doing so to others.
Seeks ways to improve performance and internal efficiency with new technologies.
Drives the adoption of new technologies among team and organisation members.
Result orientation
11. Leading teams
Demonstrates a desire to lead, takes on a role as a group leader, builds a strong team identity, and settles disputes without escalation.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Aligns people behind a compelling vision to build a strong team identity.
Delegates decision-making appropriately, ensuring that common goals are achieved efficiently.
Is able to settle disputes, viewing them as opportunities for growth and mutual learning.
12. Developing others
Encourages professional and personal growth, plans and uses effective developmental activities, and supports others to meet organisational or career goals.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Shares advice and offers guidance to help others achieve and exceed their goals.
Identifies learning opportunities for others and offers support through coaching and mentoring.
Identifies long-term developmental needs and uses multiple techniques and methods to develop others.
13. Resilience
Keeps emotions under control, maintains high performance levels under pressure and recovers quickly from setbacks and disappointment.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Maintains a positive outlook in stressful situations.
Recovers quickly from setbacks and maintains composure when faced with adversity.
Views challenges and negative experiences as learning opportunities.
14. Business acumen
Understands business and competitive situations, evaluates the impact of business decisions, and is quick to take advantage of new business opportunities.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Considers multiple aspects of the business when planning and making business decisions.
Proposes new ideas and takes action to advance organisational goals.
Acts on a deep knowledge of the marketplace and presents this data to others.
15. Adapting to changes
Works effectively while adapting to changing environments, circumstances, and relationships. Copes well with ambiguity and unclear outcomes.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Accepts change as a constant and feels comfortable in uncertain situations.
Views change as an opportunity for learning and quickly shifts behaviour to match shifting goals.
Able to make effective decisions with minimal inputs and unclear outcomes.
16. Achievement orientation
Sets challenging goals, looks for ways to improve performance, and takes calculated risks to exceed the standard of excellence.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Develops challenging goals and commits to achieving desired outcomes.
Systematically identifies and gathers resources needed to achieve personal and professional goals.
Takes entrepreneurial risks to create something novel.
Organisational effectiveness
17. Attention to detail
Monitors and checks work or manages information to reduce uncertainty in the surrounding environment, and is driven to ensure order, quality, and accuracy.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Monitors details in organisational processes and outputs to ensure quality results.
Applies various methods to monitor and improve the quality of other's work.
Develops and implements complex systems to organise information.
18. Planning and organising
Plans and prioritises work for self and others, manages time and resources to maximise productivity, and ensures that work is completed efficiently.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Develops project plans and manages time to increase efficiency.
Monitors plan execution using methods that maximise productivity.
Manages all aspects of long-term planning, developing workflows to ensure successful implementation.
19. Ensuring accountability
Provides direction confidently, communicates performance expectations, insists on high performance, and holds people accountable.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Communicates goals and reinforces a sense of responsibility.
Monitors progress against expectations and uses multiple methods to drive performance.
Applies performance measures to gather feedback and monitor progress.
20. Organisational awareness
Understands and can work effectively with complex power dynamics, policy, and processes in organisations and its environment of stakeholders.
A person who is highly skilled at this:
Navigates comfortably in organisational structures, involving relevant decision-makers to enforce change.
Recognises key decision-makers and obstacles and adapts accordingly to encourage action.
Takes ownership of long-term organisational problems and gathers support to implement solutions.
Competencies role in hiring
Evaluating candidates' competencies during the hiring process is crucial for several reasons. Competencies provide a reliable indicator of an individual's potential for future performance.
By evaluating these competencies, you can make informed predictions about how well a candidate is likely to perform in a specific role.
Understanding a candidate's competencies can also help you to identify areas for development and training. This ensures that employees not only start well but also have the potential to grow and adapt to changing job requirements over time.
Competencies can be aligned with the strategic goals and values of the organisation, ensuring that the individuals hired are capable of contributing to the organisation's long-term success.
How should I use competency insights in hiring situations?
AssessioAI position mapping tools allow you to choose 3 must haves, important and good to have competencies that the candidates should have to exceed in this role.
It’s crucial to remember that the tool does not assess the candidate competency levels but shows their self confidence against those competencies. This data should be only used to understand what areas need future discussions. The evaluation of the competencies should happen through using behavioural interview questions while interviewing the candidate.
Use AssessioAI's personality assessment to:
Use competency data to understand what requires further discussion.
Ask behavioural questions to evaluate the candidate's competencies during the interview.
Choose competencies considering both the needs of the role and the potential gaps in the current team.
Things to look out for:
Do not exclude a candidate solely based on their self-confidence regarding the competencies.
Do not make a hiring decision based on this data alone.