Page 112 - The extraordinary leader

The Competency Quest • 89

important attributes of leaders in the firm. Maxine Dalton, of the Center for
Creative Leadership, writes, “Seventy percent of the competency models I see
are just lists of positive attributes that may or may not have anything to do with
management effectiveness. They reflect a half-day, off-site meeting with senior
managers in which a list is made with the underlying implication, ‘If the CEO
says it’s a competency, it’s a competency.’ ” 4
To be applicable to the entire firm, the competencies of necessity are quite
broad and encompassing. The more general the competencies become, the
less accurate they are. However, most large organizations have decided that
it is too complicated and expensive to create competencies for each depart-
ment or section of the organization.
Another execution issue is that competencies are focused on past require-
ments for effectiveness, and not what the future will require of leaders. This
tendency to “look in the rear-view mirror” tends to create leaders who look
and act like the current group, which may be exactly what kills the organiza-
tion in the future. To the extent that competencies are used for developmen-
tal purposes, the competencies should reflect abilities and behaviors required
in the future, not the past or present. They should also describe the ability to
learn those skills required for future success.
The competencies are not being used for selection and promotion pur-
poses. Many organizations complain that although Human Resources has the
list of approved competencies, they are not finding their way into the day-to-
day hiring and promotion of people.

● They are expensive to do well and need maintenance over time, as
organizations evolve, merge, divest, globalize, and change their
activities.
● Development programs have not been tailored around them to any
large measure. It is complicated to find developmental activities for
many of the competencies. Plus, the competency lists give little help
in guiding us to ways in which people might attain these skills.

Why Competencies are Linked Together

We readily confess that we do not completely know the answer to this question.
Our current research methods do not give us the visibility or evidence needed
to answer this question fully. We are rather confident, however, that there are