What Are Competencies?

Competencies are a concept that you may encounter today when you search for a job. Many organizations use them when selecting or promoting employees.

So, what are competencies?

Competencies are a classification strategy that identifies a set of skills that a person needs to have in a given area of responsibility. They are used in many job descriptions. Professional associations also use them to identify a set of ideal skills that individuals need to possess to succeed in an industry.

If your employer or industry has a competency list for your role, this is important for you to know. At a more personal development level, it’s also important for you to identify your own competency list. You can do this by focusing on three critical competencies.

Before I discuss these three competencies that are critical to your succeeding in your managerial role, let me spend the first few paragraphs of this article identifying what management means from an operational perspective.

While there are many different definitions of management, I like to simplify things so think about management as how you work with your team to get things done.  This is different from leadership.

As a manager, you will have some input and authority over human, financial, information, and material resources in your organization. Management itself is mostly about process. It’s about HOW you get things done in the organization (how you use these different resources to meet your organization’s objectives).

Leadership is more about setting a strategic direction. It’s about WHAT you get done in your organization (the goals you meet, the influence you exert to accomplish your goals, etc). In practice, you have to both manage and lead your employees.

To be effective, there are three foundation competencies (set of skills) that every manager needs to succeed. While the actual skills that make up these competencies may slightly differ from one management job to the next, there are some common elements to all management jobs.

So, what are these three competencies that every manager needs to succeed?

To succeed as a manager, you’ll need technical, interpersonal, and conceptual competencies. The importance of each competency to your overall success will depend on what you do and the level of management at which you work in your organization.

Let’s review these three competencies further.

The First Competency: Your Ability to Do the Work

The first competency managers need is technical competency.

Technical competency is the set of skills that are related to your functional responsibility — your area of specialty. This could be a manager job in marketing, accounting, manufacturing, retail, education, etc.

Your technical skills are most important at the first level of management. As you move up in management, your technical skills become less important as you increasingly have to work through other people to meet your managerial responsibilities. Your industry and your organization will determine the skills that are necessary for your technical competence.

For example, it’s widely accepted in the human resources industry that a manager of HR needs to be skilled in risk management, workforce planning, training and development, and cultural effectiveness. Different organizations will then impose additional technical skill requirements given their unique needs.

Here’s how this might work in practice: a USA manufacturing organization that has a large number of union employees in different states will have unique risk management needs. The manufacturing firm will (among other things) want their HR manager to also be skilled in labor relations, contract negotiation, and administering specific federal and state employment laws regarding its workforce.

When you think of the set of skills that make up your technical competency, answer the following questions:

1. What are the technical skills for my industry that every manager needs to have to be effective?

2. What are the technical skills that I need to have in this job to succeed in my organization?

The list that you make from these questions will be your technical competency.

The Second Competency: Your Ability to Work With Others

Interpersonal competency is the set of skills that are necessary for you to interact successfully with other individuals and groups. These skills are the social part of your job and how you interact with others to meet organizational objectives. This competency includes skills in the areas of communication, delegation, conflict resolution, negotiation, and team building (motivation, coaching, etc.)

Your interpersonal skills while important at all levels of management become even more important at the middle and senior levels. Again, this is due to the fact that you increasingly have to rely on managers who report to you to meet organizational objectives.

Interpersonal competency is a broad area. It’s more than relating to your employees. It’s also how you relate to your boss, peers, customers, and others. In fact, interpersonal competency covers how you, in your role, interact with any important stakeholder.

For example, the HR manager of the manufacturing firm might do well in their social interactions with the various external unions representing the firm’s employees. However, if the HR manager has a poor relationship with external regulatory agencies (such as a state regulatory body) this will have a negative impact on the manager’s credibility in the firm.

To identify your interpersonal competency for your managerial job, answer the questions:

1. What are the interpersonal skills for my industry that every manager needs to have to be effective?

2. What are the interpersonal skills that I need to have in this job to work effectively with the important stakeholders in and out of my organization?

The list that you make from these questions will be your interpersonal competency for your position.

The Third Competency: Your Ability to Make Sense of Your Organization

Conceptual competency is the set of mental skills that are necessary to view your organization as a whole and to understand how all of the individual parts of it relate to and depend on each other. In simple terms, conceptual competency involves knowing how to work within your organization to meet your objectives. Conceptual competency includes planning, decision-making, analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.

Your conceptual skills have relevance at the first level of management in relation to getting the immediate work done. At this level however, if you are like most first level managers, you have a defined scope of responsibility and authority. Conceptual skills are more important at the middle level of management where you have to implement the directives of senior management through your managers and the employees who work for them. Conceptual skills are most important at the senior level of management. At this level, you are operating at the broadest scope and authority level and your responsibility is to set the strategic direction for your organization.

Conceptual competency can be difficult as you take on higher levels of management responsibility. The problems you have to solve are more difficult, the decisions you have to make have less obvious choices, and the planning you need to do requires more judgment and business wisdom.

To identify your conceptual competency for your managerial job, answer the questions:

1. What are the conceptual skills for my industry that every manager needs to have to be effective?

2. What are the conceptual skills that I need to have in this job to work effectively within my organization?

The list that you make from these questions will be your conceptual competency for your position.

How Can You Use This Information?

So, how can you use this information about these three competencies to succeed in your management role?

First, realize that many managers get promoted for their technical competency. They’re good in their functional area (marketing, accounting, manufacturing, retail, education, etc.). They’re efficient at getting the work done.

The problem with this approach is that having good technical skills has little relevance to having good management skills. Management is more than having good technical skills; it’s also about having good interpersonal and conceptual skills.

If you find this applies to you ( as it did to me when I first started out in management), then you’ll want to take personal responsibility for your own management development. Don’t wait for your boss or human resources to take responsibility for your management development. The truth is that most companies devote most of their training resources to the technical side of the business and limited resources to management development efforts.

Second, take time to outline the skills you need in these three competency areas. After you make your list, you may find that everything is working well for you right now in your current role. However, if you’re like many managers, you may find some areas where you can do even better.

For example, if you are experiencing problems in your managerial role it may be because you are doing well with two competencies but struggling with the third. For example, some managers may do well with their technical and conceptual competencies but struggle with their interpersonal competency (gaining the cooperation of others). Other managers do well with their interpersonal and technical competencies but struggle with their conceptual competency (meeting objectives efficiently and effectively).

This is why meeting these three competencies is critical to your own success. Knowing which of your competencies requires more attention allows you to self-correct your management efforts. You might delegate some things to others, negotiate with your boss or peers on some areas, or get training in an area.

Look at your three competencies as a guide  — the better you do at each of them, the more you will succeed as a manager. And, the more that you succeed in your role, the more you will be viewed as a well balanced manager who is important to your organization.

In conclusion, just as a carpenter cannot use a hammer, nail, and crowbar for every construction activity, managers, too, need a toolbox of skills (competencies) to be successful. Developing your own three competencies list for your position and knowing where your own abilities lie in these areas can help you succeed as a manager.