Employees who want to meet performance expectations at a given level of responsibility will have to set goals and develop appropriate competence enhancement plans to achieve them.

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Introduction

Competence improvement planning is a step-wise process that begins with identification of competence gaps, developing competence improvement goals or objectives, developing strategic empowerment actions/statements to achieve the objectives, and measuring of intervention success. These steps are described below:

1.Identify competence gap

Assessing competence indicator statements against set criteria enables the candidate to identify areas of strength and weakness in a given competence. Indicator statements that score high on the ‘rating scale’ are promotive to your performance while those indicator statements with a lower score on the ‘rating scale’ are limiting to your performance. All candidates who score below rating scale 3 (meets expectations) in the self assessment will require to identify competence gaps and apply competence improvement interventions to raise their performance to the required level. Employees who meet performance expectations at a given level of responsibility or expertise and want to go for higher level positions or enhance their reputation in the organization and/or increase their own job challenge within the same position will have to set goals at higher levels of responsibility or expertise  and develop appropriate competence enhancement plans to achieve them. In identifying competence gaps the description of the rating (i.e. Below standard = 1; Unsatisfactory = 2, Meets expectations =3; Excellent = 4; and Exceptional = 5) is applied on to the indicator statements in question. For example a competence gap in the competence ‘communication’ can be stated as “Below standard” in ‘Checking her own understanding of others’ communication’.” Or “Unsatisfactory in listening actively and objectively without interrupting”

2.Goal Clarification

After the competence gaps have been identified in step I above the next step is for the candidate to develop a set of goals or objectives to address the gaps identified. If the candidate rated herself ‘below standard in checking her own understanding of others’ communication” Or “Unsatisfactory in listening actively and objectively without interrupting”, the following objectives can be developed:

1. To acquire skill in checking my own understanding of others’ communication before responding
2. To acquire skills in listening actively and objectively without interrupting
3. To develop a practice of seeking and accepting guidance and feedback on my own job performance.

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3.Identify your motivating work values

Personal  values  are  individual  qualities  that  reflect  a person’s  sense  of  ‘right’  or  ‘wrong’  or  ‘what  ought  to be’ and ‘what ought not to be’. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior.  For  example,  if  you  value ‘equal rights for all’ and you go to work for an organization  that  treats  its  managers  much  better  than  it does  its  workers,  you  may  form  the  attitude  that  the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you may  not  perform  well  or  may  perhaps  leave  the  company. It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive. Because personal values influence our attitudes and behavior we can use them to ‘power or influence our’ actions towards addressing the competence gaps we will have identified and hence achieve set competence improvement objectives and/or goals. But first those personal values that are important to performance must be identified. In order to improve his or her performance the employee must isolate his or her motivating work values. Some examples of motivating work values may include ‘Creativity’; ‘being competent’; ‘self-expressive’; ‘contextualizing issues’; ‘recognition’; ‘being at the center of attention’; and craving for success

4.Develop a strategic empowerment action/statement to achieve the objectives

This step involves developing strategic empowerment actions/statements to achieve the stated competence improvement objectives. The strategic empowerment action is stated in behavioral or action language using a selected motivating work value. For example if ‘contextualizing’ or putting things in context is a personal value you espouse you can develop strategic empowerment actions/statements as below:

1. I value putting things in context before I act. “I will analyze the political, cultural, social, psychological, and ethical impact to the communication or conversation before responding to issues in a conversation”
2. I am a self expressive person and I also crave for success. I can only achieve success if I study and promote a two-way communication about my work

In the first example ‘putting things in context’ is used to power action towards the objective “checking my own understanding of others’ communication before responding”

In the second example “Self expression” and “craving for success” are the motivating work values used to power action

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towards the objective “listening actively and objectively without interrupting”

5.Determine how success will be measured

This step involves putting in place indicators to measure success. It involves developing a measurement statement. A measurement statement describes how you define success or failure in the work you perform or the contribution you make. This statement should emphasize observable responses from co-workers, supervisors or your clients. Success could be ‘creating and leading a cohesive team of deliverers’ or ‘getting more opportunities to help others or to develop an area of expertise’. Success could also be in form of recognition or reward from the team or from society in which you make a contribution. Examples of measurement statements may include:

1. I will know I have succeeded when I receive positive feedback from colleagues on my communication style
2. I will know I have succeeded when I am able to sustain a conversation with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds

6.Develop a competence improvement worksheet

Develop a worksheet to show the competence gap, competence improvement goal or objective, applicable motivating work value, strategic empowerment action/statement and measure of success. An example of a competence improvement worksheet is shown here

For more information about competence improvement planning visit  our  Email  coaching program  at  http://www.expressexpertise.com/lesson/getting- started/ and make a coaching request. You can also join our Express expertise career club at http://www.expressexpertise.com/join-club-2/ and get access to a wealth of career building tools and materials[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Featured in this post

• Competence Assessment
• Getting to new heights in your career
• Self assessment: How good is your communication
• Competence catalogue
• Career competence package
• Performance self assessment

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