Bespoke or not?

There is of course much to be said for developing an organisation-specific competency model, whether based on interviews and focus groups or on more rigorous research.

We have developed bespoke models for:

• Consultants. Download a framework
• Inspectors. See case study
• A trade association. See case study
• Senior government officials in Lithuania. See case study

However, a bespoke process is time-consuming and can be expensive. It can also be argued that for roles which are not highly specialised it is unlikely to discover anything radically new. For these reasons, people are increasingly looking for generic frameworks they can select from.

What does “generic” mean in this context? We think the answer is essentially a framework of elements that could in principle apply to more or less any job.

or complete an enquiry form and find out how we can help you with competency development.

Our generic competency model

The framework is ordered in relation to four basic roles:

• Leader.
  
• (Line) Manager.
  
• Team member.
  
• Individual contributor.

They are not entirely mutually exclusive of course. For example, leaders are usually also managers, and managers are commonly also members of teams. Both have some personal performance elements in their role.

People who are team members or individual contributors are distinct in that they do not generally have significant leadership or management responsibilities: their key competencies focus on personal delivery. Competent performance in any role of course ultimately depends on self management.

The framework also recognises that there are different types of team (management teams, operational teams and project teams) and different types of service delivery (ongoing, transactional and project).

For each of the 30 competencies there is:

• An essence statement which describes in a nutshell what the competency is about.
• Four suggested behaviours.
  
• A set of optional alternatives for further tailoring.

Find out more: Download a white paper on the framework.