Leadership Competencies

The success of a business relies heavily upon its leadership at all levels of the organization. The ability to develop and retain employees that show strong leadership competencies has a lasting impact on a Company’s ability to thrive and be successful, whether those employees are executive-level managers or team supervisors.

While there are a variety of competencies that could define a strong leader, EctoHR, Inc. believes that laying out those that are the most important to the success of a business is the best way to start identifying and grooming talent within a Company. This process should involve open conversations between HR and executive-level management, starting with a large pool of competencies and narrowing down the list to those most pertinent to the organization. While the practice of selecting and developing strong leaders in an organization is a small portion of the bigger picture of Talent Management, it is typically the most important.

EctoHR utilized Lominger’s “FYI: For Your Improvement”, written by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, to help define the most important leadership competencies for the Company. This book is an excellent resource and a great starting point for choosing key competencies, as well as understanding the complexities of each individual one.

While Lominger identifies over 160 competencies, below is a snapshot of some of those related to leadership to help get you started on thinking about what is most important for your business:

 

1. Thinking Capabilities – Relates to an individual’s conceptual processes
   • Timely Decision Making
   • Strategic Agility
   • Problem Solving
   • Conflict Management
2. Self-Management – Relates to elements of an individual’s values and traits and what drives their behavior
   • Integrity and Trust
   • Ethics and Values
   • Self-Development
   • Self-Knowledge
3. Areas of Knowledge – Reflects knowledge and expertise
   • Business Acumen
   • Functional/Technical Skills
4. Service Delivery – Identifies critical work elements required for successful delivery of services
   • Organizational Agility
   • Perspective
5. Human Resource Management – Relates to management practices and interpersonal skills that enhance successful interactions with others
   • Approachability
   • Listening
   • Motivating Others

 

When reading the list above, did anything jump out at you and strike a chord?  Do you identify or not identify with anything listed?  If so, you may be on your way to pinpointing which competencies are the best for your organization.

 

The EctoHR Team is experienced in Talent Management and defining Leadership Competencies to develop future leaders of the business. If interested in borrowing a copy of the book or for questions on how we can help your Company, please contact a member of the team at hr@ectohr.com or 810.534.0170.