Why Competency Thinking Limits Executives

and What to Do Instead - 

Last week, I worked with an executive uncertain about applying for a job due to a missing experience on her resume—a common yet limiting mindset.

The limiting belief? That one needs to have done all the things that the job will lead.

This is what I call a “competency” narrative.Competency frameworks are often seen as great tools for individual contributors and first-time managers to understand career paths and skill-building approaches. But they’re based on the concept that you need to collect certain experiences before you’re ready for your next level. 

Many Directors have grown up with corporate HR's competency frameworks, and often treat that idea as a fixed truth. But it becomes dangerously limiting when it comes to Executive development. Executive development is not simply about collecting competencies like merit badges. Look at many executives in roles today and often you see that they have not worked in every function they lead. This is especially true of general management roles, which are by their definition, multi-functional.

Relying too heavily on competency frameworks fuel imposter syndrome among Directors and New Executives. Feeling pressured to constantly be developing specific competencies can leave you feeling inadequate and unprepared.

How to Frame Readiness Instead?

Instead of focusing on competencies, it's important for Directors and Executives to focus on their own development in a more holistic way. Trusting in your current abilities and being open to growth and learning opportunities is key to navigating the complexities of executive roles.

Does that mean that you are ready for executive roles today? Maybe - maybe not. But competency thinking isn’t how your plan your activities to prepare yourself. 

So what must an executive know about the activities she’s going to lead? He or she must be able to oversee them, meaning assure that they are working as intended, and if not, to build or repair capabilities through changes in staffing, process, oversight, etc. These are aspects that are learnable, without necessarily working in the function. 

Think of competencies as the bricks in a wall. Capabilities are the steel girders of a skyscraper, essential for structural integrity. A skyscraper goes up well ahead of the final bricks that fill in the walls. And this is how you should think about what you need to know

Actioning the Insight

So, if you find yourself feeling lost with a development plan that will take forever to build “competency”, walk through this exercise.

Select an executive role you aspire to. For instance, a functional VP. It’s easier if you use an organization you know as a model. Try to break that function down into various sub-functions. Marketing might be broken down into: Product Management, Intelligence & Insights, Strategic Marketing, Communications, Innovation, Field Marketing/Business Development. Eliminate the sub-functions you’ve worked in and focus on the ones you haven’t. For each aspect do you know:

• What the sub-function’s impact is?
• How it’s staffed and what staff skills are needed? And what 
• What processes and enabling methods does it rely on?
• How executives provide oversight? and key measurements of effectiveness?
• How is it incentivized?
• And how these things might vary across different types of business models you’re likely to encounter?
• How would you identify someone competent in the sub-function and what expert resources do you know (e.g. consultants)

Consider a role, identify sub-functions, recognize gaps, and create a learning plan to fill them through experience or expert consultation. Often executives realize they know a lot about areas they have not directly worked in. We often recommend an aspiring executive go through the learning process for 1 or 2 of these sub-functions so that they understand how they can learn about a capability, without working in it.

Shift your focus from collecting competencies to understand capabilities and their development for effective executive leadership.

Until next week,