Competencies
Competencies are clusters of observable and measurable behaviors that are critical to workplace effectiveness and career success. They reflect the effective application of knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes.
Competencies and Functional Skills
Competencies describe broader behavioral patterns. Unlike specific functional skills, competencies are general enough to apply to any role at any level of responsibility. Functional skills are a learned, often technical or functional ability to carry out specific tasks, methods, or tools in a specific role.
Competency Examples
- Strategic mindset
- Communicates effectively
- Collaborates
- Decision quality
Competencies and functional skills are related to each other, and you use both together to accomplish your work. For instance, writing a compelling project proposal is a job-specific functional skill that is connected to a broader competency like Communicates effectively.
Why do Competencies matter?
Competencies are important because they:
- Provide clear expectations for the types of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are expected of team members at all levels.
- Serve as a common language for talking about knowledge, skills, and behaviors across teams and schools/units.
- Support capability development by identifying specific areas for leadership development across the organization.
Competencies are the primary drivers of success at work. Korn Ferry research shows that they explain more variation in individual job performance than any other factor – including personality, motivation, experience, or education – making them the strongest predictor of why some people significantly outperform others in the same role.
Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) Competency Model
The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) competency model describes “what good looks like” at work with clear, plain-language behaviors across four areas: how we think, get results, work with people, and manage ourselves. Because it is research-backed and used worldwide, it sets fair, consistent expectations from early career to senior roles.
The KFLA includes 38 competencies, organized into four factors: Thought, Results, People, and Self. The four factors model represents a complete, holistic view of a successful professional. Each factor represents a different dimension that describes what it takes to succeed in a modern, complex organization.
Understanding the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) Competencies
Anchored Rating Scales
- The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) model is refined with four levels of proficiency. The proficiency levels define the observable behaviors that distinguish an individual’s skill from Less Skilled to Talented and when the skill is Overused. These levels provide a clear, objective way to measure and develop talent.
- The anchored rating scales help you and your manager understand what performance may look like for a given competency across the four levels of proficiency. This provides language and examples when discussing your performance and development opportunities with your manager.
Competency Anchored Rating Scale Details
Developmental Difficulty Ratings
- Difficulty reflects the relative effort, time, and developmental stretch typically required for an individual to build reliable, sustained proficiency in a given competency.
- Difficulty is rated between 1-5, where 1=Easiest, 2=Easier, 3=Moderate, 4=Harder, 5=Hardest
Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) Competencies
Factor One: Thought
What it is: How you think, such as processing information, making sense of complexity, deciding, learning, and setting direction
Why it matters: Differentiates individuals who can navigate ambiguity, set a course, and make sound, timely calls
| Competency | Definition | Developmental difficulty rating |
|---|---|---|
| Business insight | Applying knowledge of business and the marketplace to advance the organization’s goals | 3 |
| Manages complexity | Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems | 3 |
| Customer focus | Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions | 1 |
| Decision quality | Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward | 2 |
| Financial acumen | Interpreting and applying understanding of key financial indicators to make better business decisions | 1 |
| Global perspective | Taking a broad view when approaching issues, using a global lens | 3 |
| Cultivates innovation | Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful | 5 |
| Balances stakeholders | Anticipating and balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders | 2 |
| Strategic mindset | Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies | 5 |
| Tech savvy | Anticipating and adopting innovations in business-building digital and technology applications | 1 |
Factor Two: Results
What it is: How you execute, such as planning, prioritizing, organizing, and delivering outcomes
Why it matters: Converts strategy into action and measurable performance; essential for operational credibility
| Competency | Definition | Developmental difficulty rating |
|---|---|---|
| Ensures accountability | Holding self and others accountable to meet commitments | 2 |
| Action oriented | Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm | 1 |
| Directs work | Providing direction, delegating, and removing obstacles to get work done | 2 |
| Plans and aligns | Planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals | 1 |
| Resourcefulness | Securing and deploying resources effectively and efficiently | 2 |
| Drives results | Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances | 1 |
| Optimizes work processes | Knowing the most effective and efficient processes to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement | 3 |
Factor Three: People
What it is: How you work with others, such as relating, communicating, influencing, teaming, and developing talent
Why it matters: Sustains engagement and multiplies impact through others
| Competency | Definition | Developmental difficulty rating |
|---|---|---|
| Attracts top talent | Attracting and selecting the best talent to meet current and future business needs | 3 |
| Collaborates | Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives | 2 |
| Communicates effectively | Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences | 2 |
| Manages conflict | Handling conflict situations effectively, with a minimum of noise | 5 |
| Develops talent | Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization’s goals | 4 |
| Values differences | Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization | 4 |
| Drives engagement | Creating a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives | 3 |
| Interpersonal savvy | Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people | 4 |
| Builds networks | Effectively building formal and informal relationship networks inside and outside the organization | 5 |
| Organizational savvy | Maneuvering comfortably through complex policy, process, and people-related organizational dynamics | 4 |
| Persuades | Using compelling arguments to gain the support and commitment of others | 4 |
| Builds effective teams | Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals | 5 |
| Drives vision and purpose | Painting a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action | 4 |
Factor Four: Self
What it is: How you manage yourself, such as self-awareness, integrity, resilience, adaptability, and courage
Why it matters: Provides the foundation for consistent behavior under pressure and the capacity to grow with the role
| Competency | Definition | Developmental difficulty rating |
|---|---|---|
| Manages ambiguity | Operating effectively, even when things are not certain or the way forward is not clear | 5 |
| Courage | Stepping up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said | 4 |
| Nimble learning | Actively learning through experimentation when tackling new problems, using both successes and failures as learning fodder | 3 |
| Being resilient | Rebounding from setbacks and adversity when facing difficult situations | 3 |
| Demonstrates self-awareness | Using a combination of feedback and reflection to gain productive insight into personal strengths and weaknesses | 3 |
| Self-development | Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels | 3 |
| Situational adaptability | Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations | 5 |
| Instills trust | Gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity | 1 |
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Performance Management @ Stanford and Simple Eval
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