Competency Mapping

Stop guessing your next move—let a Personal Development Plan guide your progress. A while back, I mentored a professional named Rahul, who felt he was being repeatedly overlooked for promotions. We conducted a competency mapping session and discovered a key gap in his ability to work cross-functionally and lead diverse teams. 🧩 Rather than feeling discouraged, Rahul saw this as an opportunity. We built a Personal Development Plan (PDP) to close those gaps. By enrolling in relevant courses and taking on cross-departmental projects, Rahul not only improved his skills but also earned the promotion he had been aiming for. 👉 What is a Personal Development Plan (PDP)? A PDP is a roadmap for your career growth, detailing the specific skills you need to develop to advance in your role. Here are the Key Sections every PDP should include: 💢Self-Assessment: Identify your current strengths and areas for improvement based on feedback or a competency mapping session. 💢Goal Setting: Set clear, measurable goals for what you want to achieve in your career (e.g., leadership skills, cross-functional collaboration). 💢Action Plan: Outline the steps you’ll take to close the gaps, such as enrolling in courses, seeking mentorship, or participating in projects. 💢Timeline: Assign deadlines to each action item to track your progress and stay on course. 💢Evaluation: Regularly assess your progress through self-reflection or feedback from peers and supervisors. 💡 Key Action Points: ⚜️Use competency mapping to identify specific skill gaps. ⚜️Develop a Personal Development Plan to close those gaps. ⚜️Engage in practical experiences like cross-functional projects or targeted training. Feeling stuck in your career? Start building your personal development plan today and tackle those skill gaps head-on! #CareerDevelopment #SkillGaps #PersonalDevelopmentPlan #LeadershipSkills #CompetencyMapping #ProfessionalGrowth

A CEO confessed something to me recently, “We’ve hired 40 people this year… yet my team still says we don’t have the right talent.” And it seems, this sentence is becoming the anthem of 2025. But if we look at this closely, it’s not a hiring problem. It’s an 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. Most companies add talent the way they add furniture,  put a chair where there’s space and hope it fits the room.  Titles multiply. Job descriptions get recycled. New hires walk into unclear roles. And leaders look around wondering why capability still feels thin. However, it is important to understand, 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 ≠ 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲. Growing companies don’t need more people. They need a 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐩, a brutally honest picture of the skills the business actually runs on. When CEOs see work through capabilities instead of titles, everything changes: 1. Overlaps become obvious 2. Hidden skill gaps surface 3. High performers stop drowning in work that doesn’t match their strengths 4. Reskilling becomes cheaper (and faster) than hiring 5. Teams become role-agnostic and outcome-driven And suddenly, hiring becomes strategic, not reactive. Most organizations already have 70% of the capability they think they lack. It’s just locked behind outdated titles and mismatched expectations. Stop adding people to fill noise. Start mapping capabilities to optimize performance. #TalentManagement #OrganizationalGrowth #LeadershipStrategy #FutureOfWork #HRInsights

We all say we want the best people. But many of us still filter for the best CV. And those two things rarely match. Degrees don’t prove capability.  Job titles don’t prove relevance.  Experience doesn’t prove readiness. What actually predicts success?  Skills.. today’s skills, tomorrow’s skills, and the ability to grow into both. That’s why skills mapping is becoming the backbone of modern hiring. Not a trend.. a needed correction. A skills-based approach has shown: • 90% fewer mis-hires • 91% higher retention • 34% faster time-to-hire • Saves 600 hours per senior hire (TestGorilla 2024) And with nearly 40% of core skills expected to change by 2030, the companies who win are the ones hiring for what actually matters. How to start: 1️⃣ Define what success really looks like for each role. Not tasks. Not credentials. List the 10–15 skills your top performers rely on. 2️⃣ Build a consistent proficiency scale. Basic → Apprentice → Intermediate → Advanced → Expert Clear criteria removes guesswork and bias. 3️⃣ Rewrite job descriptions with skills at the top. Job posts under 300 words with skill-first framing get 8.4% more applicants. 4️⃣ Screen for proof, not keywords. Use structured interviews, skill tests, and scoring rubrics to evaluate real capability. 5️⃣ Keep your skills map alive. Core skills now expire every ~5 years. Review quarterly. Update annually. This isn’t just better hiring. It’s better team building, better development, and better alignment between people and the work that lets them perform at their highest level. The truth: Skills mapping isn’t a “future of work” idea. It’s the system companies need now.. especially as roles evolve faster than most org structures can keep up. Organizations that adopt skills-based hiring are: • 98% more likely to retain top talent • 57% better at adapting to change (Deloitte) If your team wants fewer mis-hires, faster hiring cycles, and more people doing the work they’re actually great at.. this is the shift. ♻️ Repost to help more leaders hire for real capability, not outdated credentials. ➕ Follow Ben Henley for actionable tips on finding your best work.

70 roles. 2000 people. One readiness mistake that nearly broke a manufacturing giant. On paper they were thriving. But from the inside, things were falling apart. ⤷ No shared definition of success.  ⤷ No competency benchmark.  ⤷ No journey to help people grow into their roles. They didn’t have a leadership problem. They had a readiness problem. So when myDayOne collaborated with them… We didn’t roll out another LMS or workshop. We rebuilt their teams from the ground up with a “readiness-first” approach. Here’s how- 1. We defined what ready means. And built a competency framework aligned to their business strategy. 2. We mapped out how someone grows into a role and what signals true readiness. 3. We designed personalized readiness journeys using our 5S model (Skills, Self-awareness, Speed, Situational adaptability, and Scope & Scale) Within 6 months they experienced 70% drop in performance ambiguity. 80% improvement in HR efficiency. But the real win- Leaders stopped second-guessing their team's strengths. Because readiness wasn’t a hope anymore. It was a system.

"If she leaves, we're in big trouble!" If you can say that, you're already on the right track! Here are 2 recent dramatic cases: 1. "You're fired!" ... "Oopsie! We need you back." In November 2022 Twitter fired thousands. The very next day they tried to rehire many of them. They had been "... let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary ..."¹ This is not especially a Twitter-sized problem. I've seen it happen in a small company, too. 2. "Hey, we've been down for 8 DAYS, but we're back!" In October 2022, the $1B Dollar Shave Club was down for 8 DAYS! Root cause: they no longer had anyone who fully understood the intricacies of how to deploy their servers.² Both companies: - were unaware of their dependence on key competencies - did not track & manage these competencies effectively It's a common practice to maintain a competency matrix for each employee. It is used to track employees' personal development progress. This spreadsheet lists their current proficiency levels in 2 major groups: 1. Generic skills, e.g. Javascript, C++, architecture 2. Company-specific knowledge domains, components, activities and competencies, e.g. "the Flux Capacitor microservice" Flip it on its head! Once, when I was asked to reorganise an engineering department, I created a reverse matrix — one that shows competencies from the company's viewpoint. It lists each required knowledge domain or competency, along with the names of the people who are familiar or competent. From then on, this reversed matrix method has helped me deliberately and proactively assign people to develop competencies that were not yet covered by several people. If they had used this method: 💡 Twitter could have known who NOT to fire. 💡 Dollar Shave Club could have known that a necessary competency was no longer covered. There's a catchy name for the risk resulting from not sharing information and competencies. Clue: "What happens if they get hit by a bus?" The "Bus Factor" is the minimum number of team members that have to suddenly disappear from a project before the project stalls due to lack of knowledgeable or competent personnel.³ 👉 You need to manage your company's "Bus Factor" proactively. Maintaining a reverse competency matrix is the key. [Repost] if you found this helpful.  ----- I help startups scale up engineering outcomes. 🤙 DM me for details. #cto #startups #scaleups

Strategy isn’t just about good ideas. It’s about navigating tensions, dilemmas, paradoxes. In real strategy work, you’re always balancing two fundamental forces: Thinking vs. Doing: the tension between understanding and acting Stabilizing vs. Transforming: the tension between preserving and changing Together, these form the Strategy Competency Matrix: A 2x2 that maps how people approach strategy, not just what they know, but how they operate. This leads to four specific competency-based roles: ↳ Analyst (Thinking & Stabilizing) Brings clarity, structure, and insight to what already exists. Protects coherence. Core Strength: Grasp the Present ↳ Visionary (Thinking & Transforming) Reframes assumptions and imagines new possibilities. Sets direction for what’s next. Core Strength: Shape the Future ↳ Change Agent (Doing & Transforming) Acts with urgency, adapts fast, and mobilizes others for change. Makes things happen. Core Strength: Move the System ↳ Operator (Doing & Stabilizing) Delivers consistency and reliable outcomes. Keeps the machine running. Core Strength: Deliver the Results None of these is better than the others. But over-relying on one can create blind spots. Great strategy work requires knowing your strategic strengths and your best contributions to strategy design and execution. That’s what makes this matrix such a powerful coaching tool. And it’s where the Big 5 of Strategy framework starts: Not with content on strategy models, but with capability & competencies. You can now take the assessment and/or get certified to use the Big 5 of Strategy within your organization and your clients!

The surveyor asked one simple question, and the team froze. A friend’s hospital is being surveyed this week. The surveyor requested the job description for the Senior Facilities Director and proof that the individual met the requirements. The team couldn’t produce the evidence. ❌ Not because the director is unqualified. ❌ Not because they are incompetent. ❌ But because they lacked the competency matrix to back it up. Now, instead of celebrating a clean survey, they are chasing an IOU. Here is the hard truth: Talent is subjective. Documentation is objective. In the eyes of a surveyor, if you can’t prove it, it doesn’t exist. To protect your team, you need to bridge that gap with three specific tools: 👉 clear job descriptions that actually match the role 👉 defensible competency matrices that map to the description 👉 documented training that aligns perfectly with the matrix This is a specific, preventable risk. At Legacy FM, we help hospitals build this defense every day. But whether you partner with us or do it internally—please, get this documented before your next survey. ⚠️ Don’t get caught off guard by an unforced error. #HealthcareFacilities #Accreditation #SurveyReady #healthcare #leadership #LegacyFM #EmpowermentThroughEducation #TrainingForTrades

If you're in L&D, this might come in handy. I know it would've helped me and my team 6 years ago. 💜 It's not quite a map. It's not a journey. It's not a radar. It's a reflection tool. How it can help you as an individual 👉 if you're an L&D professional trying to figure out what’s next for you, this map helps you spot your strengths and growth areas. You can see what competencies matter in different domains and start shaping your learning plan, not just based on where you are, but where you want to go. How it can help your team 👉 if you lead an L&D team, this gives you a shared language. You can use it to structure development conversations, map your team’s strengths, and plan how to adapt as our roles evolve, because they are, faster than ever. What we do in L&D is strategize, consult, design, implement, and lead. To do so, we rely on a set of competencies: 👉 Knowing the business 👉 Shaping the strategy 👉 Measuring impact 👉 Understanding stakeholders 👉 Co-designing experiences 👉 Facilitating learning 👉 Managing performance 👉 Co-creating solutions 👉 Applying learning science 👉 Promoting initiatives 👉 Developing teams 👉 Enabling action 👉 Using technology 👉 Managing projects 👉 Empowering people Some are more important in some L&D roles, others in other L&D roles. You take it and make it yourself. Let it guide you. Challenge it. Feel free to use it as you want. I hope this helps you pause and reflect before you rush into your next L&D project. You can download the map here 👇 #learninganddevelopment

Highlights from our workshop last week on getting to continuous performance calibration: Current way to measuring employee performance is flawed, and a barrier to regular on-going performance calibration: ❌ Low frequency (annual or bi-annual) ❌ General questions lead to subjectivity ❌ Lack of structure = qualitative assessemnts ❌ Calibration after cyclical reviews are laborious ❌ We aren't driving the behavior change we want ❌ Managers often aren't trained to assess effectively To get compounding impact from employee efforts, we need to calibrate against performance continuously. Continuous Calibration → A philosophy, set of processes and tools to define, measure, document and communicate performance feedback loops that drive both employee growth and company impact. We need: ✅ Clear role, level and outcome expectations ✅ Performance expectations documented and available ✅ Regular, structured feedback from managers to their reports (bi-weekly min) ✅ Short, on-going performance assessment loops (goals/competency-based) ✅ Transparent tracking of performance against goals ✅ Accountability from employees / managers (bottom-up) A big focus of our discussion was on how to leverage competency-matrixes as the fundamental structure of your performance and employee growth programs. We went through the exercise of giving feedback and a performance assessment to someone with general questions (i.e what did they do well and what should they improve) vs specific competencies defined by and relevant to the person's role as well as level (ie. what is your feedback and assessment of Roxanne on HR Acumen for an IC, level 4) The group shared their insights between the two approaches: Traditional, general approach: ⛔ Was harder to come up with examples ⛔ Was more likely to be positive, less constructive ⛔ Felt more generic and heavy (mental load) Competency-based approach: ✅ More aligned to helping employees grow ✅ Easier to provide concrete and relevant examples ✅ Wasn't as time consuming It makes a big difference for managers to be able to concretely assess and give feedback to their reports in a structured way vs open-ended and generic. Doing performance reviews in the context of competencies, defined by level is a fair, and kind approach to helping employees do their best work. In the comments below I shared a link to a comprehensive guide to "Getting to Continuous Progression" check it out and feel free to reach out anytime to chat about it! Thanks Paul Butler, Ingeborg van Harten and the 7people ✨ team for letting me host this at your fabulous Clubhouse ✨ And thanks for our amazing people leaders for their participation and insights Artem Korsakov, Alvaro Caballero, Bruna Büttenbender, Emma Stuart, Huwaida Ammari Tughar, Ingmar Bunschoten, Joyce Hilders, Lara Vreeke, Maryse Suijten, Michelle Fields, Gisela Pujol, Vanessa Bernhart Verlaan, Toni Cairns, Ecaterina Găitan, Joanna Szot .. I look forward to see y'all again very soon!

I was recently approached by a person who was looking to transition into Business Analysis. They told me their transferable skills were good communication skills, the ability to elicit customer needs, and Stakeholder management. I probed into these “transferable skills” and realized the person had experience selling shoes. Was this person correct? Yes they were (in their own way) as a trader and salesperson. The skills they listed are fantastic for Sales and customer-focused roles! The question was, “Is this enough for you to become a Business Analyst?” The first few years of my career in Consulting were spent around the HR concept of Competency Management. Competencies define the Knowledge, Skills and Attributes required to be DEMONSTRATED by an individual to carry out a job function! We MUST look at these three components when talking about Competency: Knowledge: This refers to the practical or theoretical understanding of a subject. This can be gained through experience, on-the-job training, reading, classes, workshops, etc. Skills: These are learned and applied abilities that use one's knowledge effectively in execution or performance. The keyword here is APPLIED, meaning you MUST have repeatedly used the skill. Skills are improved through repetition and constant use! Knowing is NOT enough here. For instance, you can learn to ride a bicycle or swim by watching videos and reading books, but you will only develop the skill if you practice it! The same applies to business analysis-you may have the knowledge, but you need to apply it in real-world situations, such as eliciting requirements or drawing process maps, to develop the skill truly! Attributes: Attributes are behavioural and, thus, more inherent to our nature; we are born with them. What differentiates people is the levels to which we have each one. These different levels inform our behaviour. Knowing where we fall on the scale of each Attribute helps us predict how we will act in a situation. Attributes tell us how we behave. I like to see some of these “Transferable skills” touted today as the “holy grail” of Business Analysis as behavioural attributes rather than skills. My conclusion, Get the Knowledge required to be a Business Analyst through learning!  This could involve reading, taking an online course, joining a boot camp, etc. Develop your SKILLS by finding opportunities to PRACTICE what you have learnt! Create projects, document the requirements, elicit requirements, document them, and draw process maps. Look for the required skills in the jobs you are targeting and develop those skills through practice! Identify the Behavioural Attributes that will make you a great Business Analyst and find ways to improve on those attributes where you need to improve! Remember, Knowledge, Skills, Attributes!