The High Performance Managerial Competencies

Tony Cockerill, John Hunt (London Business School)
Harry Schroder (University of Florida)

These competencies are the result of behavioural research to identify superior performance in dynamic environments. They describe behaviours which enable individuals, teams and organisations to perform at outstanding levels in an unpredictable, complex and fast changing environment.

It is possible to both measure and learn these behaviours, making them an ideal set of benchmarks for a coaching exercise.

Ideally a team should exhibit high performance in all eleven of the behaviours but each individual should expect to excel in only, say, four of them.

The behaviours fall into four clusters:- thinking, developmental, inspirational, and achieving.

HPMC	Behavioural Definition
THINKING
Information search	Gathers many different kinds of information and uses a wide variety of sources to build a rich informational environment in preparation for decision-making in the organisation.
Concept formation	Builds frameworks or models or forms concepts, hypotheses or ideas on the basis of information; becomes aware of patterns, trends and cause/effect relations by linking disparate information.
Conceptual flexibility	Identifies feasible alternatives or multiple options in planning and decision-making; holds different options in focus simultaneously and evaluates their pros and cons.
DEVELOPMENTAL
Interpersonal search	Uses open and probing questions, summaries, paraphrasing etc. to understand the ideas, concepts and feelings of another; can comprehend events, issues, problems, opportunities from the viewpoint of others.
Managing interaction	Involves others and is able to build co-operative teams in which group members feel valued and empowered and have shared goals.
Developmental orientation	Creates a positive climate in which staff increase the accuracy of their awareness of their own strengths and limitations; provides coaching, training and developmental resources to improve performance.
INSPIRATIONAL
Impact	Uses a variety of methods (e.g. persuasive arguments, modelling behaviour, inventing symbols, forming alliances and appealing to the interest of others) to gain support for ideas and strategies and values.
Self-confidence	States own "stand" or position on issues; unhesitatingly takes decisions when required and commits self and others accordingly; expresses confidence in the future success of the actions to be taken.
Presentation	Presents ideas clearly, with ease and interest so that the other person (or audience) understands what is being communicated; uses technical, symbolic, non-verbal and visual aids effectively.
ACHIEVING
Proactive orientation	Structures the task for the team; implements plans and ideas; takes responsibility for all aspects of the situation even beyond ordinary boundaries - and for the success and failure of the group.
Achievement orientation	Possesses high internal work standards and sets ambitious, risky and yet attainable goals; wants to do things better, to improve, to be more effective and efficient; measures progress against targets.