Understanding levels of competency
Featured in the The Competencies Activity Pack training manual
By Roger Pattison & Andrea Moffat
Category: Competencies
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
Take almost any group of managers, across any set of functional disciplines and hierarchies, in any organisation, and ask them how they think their staff are performing. Their replies will range from 'excellent' to 'OK', to 'all right really' to 'well below standard'. But what do they actually mean by these descriptions? Where is the objective evidence rather than the subjective reaction? And if you asked two managers to comment on one staff member with whom they both had regular contact, would the response be the same? So are the views consistent? These are some of the important aspects of performance this activity addresses. It demonstrates how clear behavioural descriptions of what people actually do in relation to their duties can benefit the organisation, the individual and the relationship between staff member and manager.
The activity opens with a discussion about performance to establish the value of competencies and levels as a management tool. Working in groups, the participants rank sets of cards on which are the individual statements from the four competency levels in the generic competency framework in this pack: leadership, management and development of staff, communication, and teamwork/interpersonal skills. They rank them from 1-6 according to the negative and positive competency criteria. The participants then discuss and compare their decisions and the reasons for them. In a final exercise, they look at the similarities and differences between the rankings and find reasons for the differences, examine the benefits of having positive and negative behaviour levels, and make suggestions about actions they might take in the future. The activity closes with a review of the key learning points about the value of competencies and levels in performance management.
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to enable their participants to understand the levels of competency.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:25:00 |
| No of Pages: | 30 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Glue or paste; A pair of scissors; 115 A5 cards; 230 address labels (optional); Two prepared sheets of flipchart paper.
Purpose: This training activity is intended for use by trainers with managers or staff within an organisation which is considering introducing competencies, or with a group of participants from different organisations, to introduce them to competencies and levels of competency as a beneficial tool.
Download the training activity, Understanding levels of competency as featured in the Fenman training manual; The Competencies Activity Pack