12 Most Common Competencies for Job Positions

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When you deciding on which competencies are the most appropriate for you to learn in your chosen career field, you need to make the following considerations:
  • What will be the decision making or authority of the job position intended to occupy?
  • How much internal collaboration and interaction will be required?
  • How much contact and interaction with customers will be required to do?
  • What level of physical skills and knowledge will require this job?
Basic jobs consist of routine, clerical and manual work, which requires physical or on-the-job training.
Jobs up will require more responsibility and thus their level of authority will also increase.
Different competencies will be required to adjust to the demands of the job.

Bellow is a list of 12 competencies that are commonly found across many job positions and career fields:
  1. Time management and priority setting. Everybody. Time management describes the ability to manage and effectively use your time and other people's time. Candidates who have good time management are self-disciplined and can manage distractions while performing tasks. They are able to meet deadlines and communicate schedules effectively with teammates.

  2. Goal setting. Managerial or supervisory positions. They need to:
    - know how to plan activities and projects to meet the team or organization's predetermined goals successfully.
    - to understand how to establish goals with others
    - collaborate on a way forward.
    This will help them to elicit compliance and commitment from their team members or staff and thus make the journey toward the goal more efficient.

  3. Planning and scheduling work. Managerial positions or those working in production. This competency examines how well the candidate can manage and control workforce assignments and processes by utilizing people and process management techniques. It includes:
    - analyzing complex tasks
    - breaking complex task down to manageable units or processes, using the most effective systems to plan and schedule work
    - setting checkpoints or quality control measures to monitor progress.

  4. Listening and organization. Dealing with people and working in teams within the organization (collaboration or communicating with customers). It assesses the candidate's ability to understand, analyze and organize what they hear and respond to the massage effectively. Strengthening this competency will require:
    - practice identifying inferences and assumptions
    - reading body language
    - withholding judgments that could lead to bias
    - empathizing with others

  5. Clarity of communication. Managerial or supervisory positions. Whether the information is written or verbally communicated, it need to have:
    - a clear and concise way of delivering
    - the message have to reminding teams or staff members of objectives.
    The message would need to effectively overcome semantic or psychological barriers that may occur during interactions and maintain mutual understanding and trust.

  6. Obtaining objective information. Management. It encourages decision making and conflict resolution that is fair. Fairness is reached through various techniques:
    - asking probing questions
    - interviewing staff to obtain unbiased information
    - using reflective questions appropriately.
    Requires self-awareness and understanding of one's own biases and personal judgement.
    The outcomes are based on the evidence of facts instead of one's own beliefs about what is wright or wrong.

  7. Training, mentoring and delegating. Management roles.
    Training, mentoring and delegating help leaders, managers and supervisors understand their teams or staff.
    It makes leaders influential among their subordinates.
    Influence helps to direct the team towards the desired company or project goals.
    Influence helps leaders train and develop the people under them to perform at a higher level of excellence.
    The necessary skills required to train and influence a team or group successfully include:
    - coaching
    - advising
    - transferring knowledge and skills
    - teaching
    - giving constructive feedback and criticism.

  8. Evaluating employee performance. This competency describes the ability to:
    - design
    - test
    - undertake a team or individual performance evaluation by assessing past performance and agreeing on future performance expectations.
    Employees with this competency are skilled at:
    - developing evaluation parameters
    - benchmarking performance
    - evaluating face to face confrontation with staff without holding any bias.

  9. Advising and disciplining. Managerial or supervisory positions. They will need to know how to advise and counsel employees and fairly undertake disciplinary measurements. The goal of disciplining is to restore the optimum performance of subordinates while maintaining respect and trust. Deviations from company policies, standards and culture can cost the organization a lot of money and time. Therefore, managers will need to know how to impose penalties, warnings and sanctions with firmness in appropriate circumstances.

  10. Identifying problems and finding solutions. All employees. Problem solving involves:
    - identifying the internal and external barriers with prevent achievement of a particular goal or standard
    - applying systematic procedures to reduce or eliminate problems during the implementation of strategies and actions.
    Effective problem solving involves:
    - investigating symptoms
    - distinguishing between various problems
    - assessing inputs and outcomes
    - assessing evidence related to the problem
    - planning and recommending relevant interventions.

  11. Risk assessment and decision making. Managerial or supervisory positions.
    The type of decision making required involves committing to company resources and processes that carry company wide implications.
    The problem solving competency requirements, assessing risk and making decisions require appropriate interventions and alternatives to be identified. Every intervention must be weighted for its strengths and weakness and the level of risk associated. After, the best option to achieve the desired goal is selected.

  12. Thinking analytically. Managerial or supervisory positions. It involves skills such as:
    - assessing information
    - reaching logical conclusions
    - separating facts from opinions
    - staying clear from unwanted assumptions
    - making decisions primarily based on valid premises and sufficient information.
    Analytical thinking helps leaders plan for future interventions and appropriately organize company resources.


Resources:
The untold secrets of the job search, Book by Zane Lawson