Release 9

HR Best practice : “ Fixing your weakness : Marketing 50 Management competencies “.

We have seen in the last release how one can become an A player in the best way to become an A player is to fix your weakness.

Executives make it to the big leagues when their strengths are solid and they have no serious weakness.

Nothing derails management careers faster then one or two fatal flows. Therefore, the time you spend on professional development should be spent more on overcoming Achilles heels, not offending yet another seminar on the functional area you have mastered. Allocating some 10 % developmental time to maximizing strengths will help you maintain then as strengths.

Ø Candidates with the fewest serious flaws get the job.
Ø Candidates with the most impressive strengths get the only if they do not have any fatal flaws.

Yes, early in one’s career, strength maximization is all-important for individual contributors. But the world we are considering is management. That is whose allocating time for fixing one’s short canings is almost always more career enhancing then using that time to strength one’s strengths.

Ø Companies outgrow people. Fast companies can out grow people fast.

Day – to –day working develops not just a few competencies, but many. Everyday is a training course in all 50 competencies at the next higher level.

If you don’t develop across all 50 competencies your non-development in any will stick out like a sore thumb. Your minor shortcomings will eventually be seen as major. If you fall far short on a competency – say, only fair for one in which Very Good is the minimum necessary , you will have a fatal flaw and that could be career stopping. Better fix it. If communications – Oral is a real strength , but Team Player is a fatal flaw, do you want to devote your development time to taking public speaking courses? If so, you had better plan to be a professional speaker after you are fired !

50 Management competencies are given below (Reference: Top grading by Brad Smart )They are followed by 11 career devailers.

Despite feedback, coaching and training, these career detailers continue to overshadow a persons strength, dropping ratings from A player, to B,to C ……and sometimes result in termination.

INTELLECTUAL COMPETENCIES :

Intelligence: Demonstrates ability to acquire understanding and absorb new information rapidly. A “quick study”. This competency reflects neither motivation to learn nor willingness to accept change.: rather it reflects the intellectual capacity that, when combined with motivation, results in learning.6= genius, 4= average for college graduates.

“Track record”.: Has successful career history. Meets commitments . Repeated failures with good excuses probably not acceptable. Recent track record weighed heavily.

TENACITY : Demonstrates consistent reward of passionately striving to achieve results. Conveys strong need to win. Reputation for not giving up

Which competencies are the Career makers ? All 50, but a few stand out – selecting A Players and removing C Players (top grading), Initiative , and Self –awareness. With Self- Awareness, A players figure out what is needed for success, and with Initiative the engine for the Success is in place. A person with a lot of Initiative is also apt to be passionately motivated, a change agent , and one who takes responsibility for having good people skills. The top grading competencies assure the delivery system is good- the engine (Initiative) is in the right vehicle ( dream team ).There are exceptions – that’s why we have 50 , not 5, management competencies. With initiative , Self- Awareness , Hiring A players and removing C players, all the other 46 competencies can (wont necessarily, but can ) fall into place.

A Fix – My – Weakness Plan

Now, lets draw these interrelated points together in a simple action plan.

First, think of the next job you want (or a longer – term job, if you prefer).Write the job description for it. Ask some A players to help you. Next, go the list of 50 Management Competencies and write behaviorally anchored descriptions for 30, 40 or all 50 competencies, whatever the job requires. On a 6 – point scale ( Excellent, Very Good, Good, Only Fair, Poor, Very Poor), rate the minimum necessary to earn a promotion.

Let us summarize with 2 conclusions:-

1> Fix your Very poor and Poor Competencies or get out of Management. &
2> A players need not be Excellent on all competencies, but they must meet the minimum standard on all of them.

Lastly, let us conclude this release with a quote from Carl Jung:” The shadows essence is pure gold. There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for completeness…. One does not become enlightened by imagining ‘figures of light’ but by making the darkness conscious”

This means essentially that sooner or later we must investigate our deep , dark side as courageously ( or more 50 )as we do our deep , bright side. In business we cannot lead others if we cannot first lead ourselves; we can face in others only what we can face in ourselves.

Article by: Prof. Khambete