A leadership competency model is a plan to develop employee leadership skills, created by a company internally or with the help of an external professional. It involves creating a visual representation that prioritizes leadership skills and can take weeks or months to develop. The model should align with the company’s goals and require a continuous improvement plan to be effective.
A leadership competency model is a plan created by a company to focus and develop employee leadership skills. “Skills” can refer to any skill, motivation, or behavior that may be valuable or necessary for completing job-related objectives. A leadership competency model can be developed internally, with employees and management working together to define targeted leadership skills and goals. Sometimes companies may also hire an external leadership skills professional to help create and implement a leadership skills model.
The most common way to create a leadership competency model is to create a visual representation, such as a graph, pyramid, or pie chart, that prioritizes leadership skills. Other factors that may be included in the model may be the interaction of leadership skills with each type of job or level of responsibility; for example, while self-esteem may be important for every employee, specialized skills such as negotiation or political acumen may only be needed for jobs with higher levels of responsibility.
Creating a leadership competency model can take weeks or even months of preparation and may require periodic reviews to align with business or organizational goals. Some companies appoint a task force of workers to develop the model, made up of employees from all different levels of the company. While time consuming, this approach allows for the creation of a custom model unique to the needs and goals of a specific business. Others may purchase a ready-made competency template and leadership training materials from an external source, then customize it to meet specific needs.
Developing a leadership competency model will primarily involve determining the leadership qualities that best align with the company’s goals. The desired skills can be divided into categories, such as mindset, teamwork and vision. This process usually requires the task force or outside firm to make a careful assessment of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies and plans that will help maximize strengths and improve weaker areas . For example, if a company wants to improve teamwork by increasing trust among workers, a skill could be ‘building trust through social activities’.
When built efficiently, a leadership competency model can help workers determine the most important areas for improvement and development. Additionally, a visible and present model can serve as a constant reminder of the organization’s goals and mission. For a competency model to be effective and useful, the company must be able to commit to a continuous improvement plan based on the model. Without a concerted effort by management to keep the model current and vital in daily business life, it could become nothing more than a pretty diagram on the wall.
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