NEW 38 global competency framework Korn Ferry Leadership Architect

448 Pages·2016·3.33 MB·English

by  Lynn Clayson

Competencies
development
guide

NEW 38 global competency framework
Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™

© Korn Ferry 2014-2015. All rights reserved. WWW.KORNFERRY.COM

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FYI®
for your improvement
© Korn Ferry 2014–2015. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be copied or transferred to any other expression or form without a license from Korn Ferry.
For the sake of linguistic simplicity in this product, where the masculine form is used, the feminine form should always
be understood to be included.
www.kornferry.com
FYI®
for your improvement
Printings:
First printing—10/2014. Version 14.1a
Second printing—02/2015. Version 14.2a

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Table of contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................
Organization of FYI® for your improvement .......................................................
About the editor ..................................................................................................
Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................
Competencies
1. Ensures* accountability..............................................................................
2. Action oriented ...........................................................................................
3. Manages ambiguity ....................................................................................
4. Attracts top talent .......................................................................................
5. Business insight .........................................................................................
6. Collaborates ...............................................................................................
7. Communicates effectively ..........................................................................
8. Manages complexity ..................................................................................
9. Manages conflict ........................................................................................
10. Courage .....................................................................................................
11. Customer focus ..........................................................................................
12. Decision quality ..........................................................................................
13. Develops talent ..........................................................................................
14. Values differences .....................................................................................
15. Directs work ...............................................................................................
16. Drives engagement ....................................................................................
17. Financial acumen .......................................................................................
18. Global perspective .....................................................................................
19. Cultivates innovation ..................................................................................
20. Interpersonal savvy ....................................................................................
21. Builds networks ..........................................................................................
22. Nimble learning ..........................................................................................
23. Organizational savvy..................................................................................
24. Persuades ..................................................................................................
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25. Plans and aligns .........................................................................................
26. Being resilient ............................................................................................
27. Resourcefulness ........................................................................................
28. Drives results .............................................................................................
29. Demonstrates self-awareness ...................................................................
30. Self-development .......................................................................................
31. Situational adaptability ...............................................................................
32. Balances stakeholders ...............................................................................
33. Strategic mindset .......................................................................................
34. Builds effective teams ................................................................................
35. Tech savvy .................................................................................................
36. Instills trust .................................................................................................
37. Drives vision and purpose .........................................................................
38. Optimizes work processes .........................................................................
Career stallers and stoppers
101. Poor administrator ....................................................................................
102. Blocked personal learner .........................................................................
103. Lack of ethics and values .........................................................................
104. Failure to build a team..............................................................................
105. Failure to staff effectively .........................................................................
106. Key skill deficiencies ................................................................................
107. Non-strategic ............................................................................................
108. Overdependence on an advocate ............................................................
109. Overdependence on a single skill ............................................................
110. Political missteps ......................................................................................
*Note: Italicized words are not alphabetized.
Appendix A: Developmental difficulty matrix ........................................
Notes ................................................................................................................
Index .................................................................................................................
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Introduction
Who is this guide for?
We know that for development to make a lasting difference, people must be clear on what skill or
behavior they need to improve, be motivated to make the change, and know what steps to take. This
guide provides you with ideas and strategies on how to improve where you need to be stronger or work
around a need so that you can be as effective as possible. You just need to bring the insight and the
motivation. Obviously, anyone who doesn’t recognize their development needs will not be helped by this
guide. If this is you, seek additional feedback and counsel before going any further.
Similarly, if you aren’t motivated to take the steps needed to improve, or you don’t think your need
matters, talk to your mentor or someone who understands your role and aspirations. Ask them why this
need is important for your development. See how the need plays out for you. Consider the consequences
of not addressing the need. Think about the benefits of developing to meet the need.
The tips in this guide provide practical guidance to help you develop. If you recognize your needs and are
motivated to do something about them, read on.
What is in this guide? Where did it come from?
This guide focuses on the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™, a global competency framework. The Korn
Ferry Leadership Architect™ was designed based on thorough, comprehensive, and rigorous analysis.
This global competency framework was derived based on a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and
market-based data, sourcing from Korn Ferry’s own extensive data stores and external research literature
sources.
Leveraging decades of expertise and knowledge from the hundreds of thousands of leadership
assessments Korn Ferry has amassed, the development of the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ was
based on the following criteria and principles:
• Skills that matter most for performance.
• Skills that are most relevant in the 21st century context.
• Validity across global regions.
• A user-friendly framework.
• Content that can be used for multiple purposes including selection, development, performance, and
competency modeling.
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The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ global competency framework comprises:
4 Factors Factors are groups of competencies that form a cohesive theme. These
competencies share some thematic similarities. Factors can be derived
from statistics or content analysis.
12 Clusters Clusters are statistically supported groupings of related competencies that
represent a broader scope of skills and behaviors that contribute to
success in the skill.
38 Competencies Competencies are skills and behaviors required for success that can be
observed.
10 Career stallers The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ contains 10 Career stallers and
and stoppers stoppers that are further grouped into 3 Clusters. Stallers and stoppers are
behaviors generally considered problematic or harmful to career success.

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Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ Global competency framework
FACTOR I: THOUGHT FACTOR III: PEOPLE
A. Understanding the business G. Building collaborative relationships
5. Business insight 6. Collaborates
11. Customer focus 9. Manages conflict
17. Financial acumen 20. Interpersonal savvy
35. Tech savvy 21. Builds networks
B. Making complex decisions H. Optimizing diverse talent
8. Manages complexity 4. Attracts top talent
12. Decision quality 13. Develops talent
32. Balances stakeholders 14. Values differences
34. Builds effective teams
C. Creating the new and different
18. Global perspective I. Influencing people
19. Cultivates innovation 7. Communicates effectively
33. Strategic mindset 16. Drives engagement
23. Organizational savvy
FACTOR II: RESULTS 24. Persuades
D. Taking initiative 37. Drives vision and purpose
2. Action oriented
27. Resourcefulness FACTOR IV: SELF
J. Being authentic
E. Managing execution 10. Courage
15. Directs work
36. Instills trust
25. Plans and aligns
38. Optimizes work processes K. Being open
29. Demonstrates self-awareness
F. Focusing on performance 30. Self-development
1. Ensures accountability
28. Drives results L. Being flexible and adaptable
3. Manages ambiguity
22. Nimble learning
26. Being resilient
31. Situational adaptability

CAREER STALLERS AND STOPPERS
M. Trouble with people O. Too narrow
102. Blocked personal learner 106. Key skill deficiencies
103. Lack of ethics and values 107. Non-strategic
110. Political missteps 108. Overdependence on an advocate
109. Overdependence on a single skill
N. Doesn’t inspire or build talent
101. Poor administrator
104. Failure to build a team
105. Failure to staff effectively

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How do I use this guide?
Strategies for improvement
First, determine the need.
The key to using this guide is to identify the right development need. Five of the most typical development
needs fall into two major categories—the need to build skill or the need to reduce noise.
Developmental strategies to build skill in competencies are straightforward. In all cases, you can attack
the need directly or at least deal with it by working around the need. Consider these three cases that
indicate a need to build skill:
1. You are average in a skill that is critically important and needs to be stronger.
2. You are weak (unskilled) in an important area and you’d like to get better (skilled) or move from
negative to neutral.
3. You are untested (maybe unskilled) in an important area.
When your focus is to reduce noise in order to avoid derailment, it’s a bit different. If you receive feedback
that you have a Lack of ethics and values (103), this is a serious problem, and your goal should be to
neutralize this potentially career-stopping issue. Working on a staller is not the same as building a
competency. A staller is much more serious and likely results from many sources—what you underdo,
such as Interpersonal savvy (20) and what you overdo, such as Drives results (28) or Persuades (24). For
this reason, we have written separate remedies for the stallers and stoppers that cover tips you won’t find
if you simply go to Interpersonal savvy (20), for example. Consider these two needs that require you to
reduce noise:
1. You overuse a strength to the point that it is causing problems for you.
2. You have a staller/stopper that is causing serious problems for you that you need to neutralize.
Then, take action.
When you have identified a need, start to put your development plan together. List the competency and
the “before” description that applies to you (from either the Less skilled or Overused skill definitions). Or,
list the staller/stopper and the “before” description that applies to you from the Problem definition. Review
and record Causes as well as your learnings from the Context for each chapter. Then you are ready to
create an action plan. There are four possible strategies for taking action, depending on your need.
1. Develop. You don’t have to be good at everything. Most successful leaders have four to six major
strengths, but tend to lack glaring weaknesses. Developing in all 38 Competencies is unlikely, so
select wisely. If you are committed to developing a competency, create a plan using these
suggestions:
– Choose from the development tips. Look at the specific tips and pick the ones that apply. Each tip
addresses a specific manifestation of being unskilled at the competency. It is unlikely that all of
the topics or tips will apply to any one person. Think back to the Causes you checked and what
you learned from the Context.
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– Seek further feedback. Little happens without feedback. Get a developmental partner, get formal
360 feedback, and poll people you work with about what you should start doing, keep doing, keep
doing with slight modifications, and stop doing.
– Use jobs or assignments for development. The number one developer of competence by far is
stretching, challenging jobs—not feedback, not courses, not role models, but jobs where you
develop and exercise significant and varied competencies. If you really want to grow, these are
the best places to do it. You’ll have to stretch in uncomfortable areas. A challenging job or
assignment requires you to work on your downsides more vigorously because you either perform
or fail. Real development happens when it’s not practice but it’s the real thing and the stakes are
high. Use your new job or assignment to learn from experience—this ability has been shown to
be linked to potential.
– Lay out a plan and a schedule. Your plan should include at least three items you will work on
immediately.
2. Work around the need to neutralize the weakness. Self-knowledge is essential to this approach. You
have to know you have the need and acknowledge its importance. You can use any of these four
workaround strategies to cover for your lack of skill. The goal of a workaround is to reduce the noise
caused by the need. While there may or may not be any learning attached to the workaround, this
accomplishes what must be done without directly addressing the personal need.
– People workarounds…
Find an internal or external person to stand in for you when the weakness is in play. This could be
a peer, a friend, someone from your staff, or a consultant. For example, if you are a marginal
presenter, get someone who is a good presenter to present your material. Hire people for your
team who are good in the areas you are not. Delegate the tasks that bring the weakness into
play.
– Task workarounds…
Trade tasks or share tasks with a peer. For example, you help a peer with their strategic planning,
and they help you with your presentations to senior management. Structure the weakness out.
Redesign your job (with your boss) so that you are not responsible for the task(s) that brings your
weakness into play. Change your job so that you no longer have to give lots of speeches to
strangers. Assign that task to another unit.
– Change workarounds…
If you decide that you don’t want to work on your needs, do an honest assessment of your
strengths and find an organization, a job, another unit, or another career that fits those strengths.
If you are in sales promotion and are not a comfortable presenter or cold caller, then find a sales
job where leads are provided or customers come to you, or consider marketing analysis where
those two requirements are greatly decreased.
– Self workarounds…
Acknowledge your weaknesses and be honest with yourself and others. Research shows that
admitting weaknesses (within limits) actually increases people’s evaluations of you. So if you start
by saying, “As most of you know, speaking is not one of my strengths,” people will not be as
critical. Make a conscious decision to live with a weakness. If you decide not to address the need,
concentrate harder on the things you do well.
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3. Compensate for an overused strength. Using the strengths that got you where you are today is fine,
of course, until something changes—a new strategy, a change in job responsibilities, a new
leadership direction in the organization. Then new skills are called for, and the current skill portfolio
needs an overhaul. You come to a fork in the road, and the path you choose makes a big difference.
One path is taken by the open, learning agile, curious, continuous improvers. They detect that the
assignment is going to require a break from the past, a new direction. They figure out what the new
ways of thinking or new skills need to be and develop them or use workarounds or compensators.
The other path is taken by the larger group. When things are not going the way they are used to,
when they are stretched to their limit, they turn up the volume on the handful of strengths that they
already have. Their operating theory is that if a lot is good, more must be even better. If you have
been given feedback that you do too much of a good thing—here are some general strategies to
address this problem:
– Isn’t it obvious? Stop overdoing it. Do it less. But when your mentor says be less smart, be less
results oriented, do less yourself, you have trouble with that advice. Why? Because those are the
things that account for your success to date. Those are the things you have been rewarded for.
It’s pretty scary thinking about doing less of what you are good at. It’s really hard in real life to
crank back on your strengths, but it can work.
– Add some other skills you have to lessen the noise and the damage you are causing by the
overuse. Keep driving results, but do so in a softer way by adding more effective communication
or Interpersonal savvy (20).
– You may not have the skills that could compensate for your weaknesses. In that case, you can
use a workaround strategy or develop the compensating skills that are needed. For that, think
about which of the competencies would help and use the developmental tips listed in those
chapters.
4. Live with it. You can just live with a weakness. At least you know what it is and are willing to admit
that you have a lack of skills in this area. Recognize and deploy your strengths. In this case, find your
highest competencies or performance dimensions and leverage them. If you excel at balancing
stakeholders or collaborating, get into more situations that allow you to use and hone your strengths.
Get into roles, jobs, organizations, and career paths that use your specific current and existing
strengths.
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