Competencies
A competency framework breaks a role down into the specific observable behaviours that separate strong performance from weak, so development and promotion decisions rest on evidence instead of who seems ready.
Trace the path across four boxes, from a written framework down to one person's development plan.
Reach for this when…
- A strong technical performer was promoted into management and is struggling, and nobody can say precisely why.
- Promotion decisions keep coming down to who the last manager liked.
- Someone asks what they should actually work on and the honest answer is a feeling, not a list.
How to run it
- Select a competency framework built for the actual role, not a generic list.
- Rate the individual against each competency using specific observed behaviour, not impressions.
- Rank the gaps by importance to the role, not by what's easiest to fix.
- Build a development plan with named actions, stretch assignments and resources against each priority.
A worked example
Situation. Marta Ruiz runs HR for Ruiz Robótica, a small manufacturer in Valencia, Spain, where two of her best engineers had been promoted into team lead roles on technical strength alone and were both close to quitting.
Applied. She ran a competency framework built for the team lead role specifically, rated both against real evidence from the last six months, and found the gap in both cases was delegation and giving direct feedback, not technical judgement.
Result. One engineer took the development plan and grew into the role over two quarters. The other asked to go back to an individual contributor role, and this time the company had language to make that an honest move rather than a demotion.
The catch
A competency framework only measures what it was built to measure - a generic off-the-shelf list rates people against a role that isn't quite theirs. Rating also drifts toward whoever writes the most persuasive self-assessment unless it's anchored in specific evidence.
If the framework wasn't built for this specific role, the rating is measuring the wrong job.
Origin: Various (McClelland, Boyatzis, Spencer & Spencer; Lominger/Korn Ferry)