Leadership & Competency Iceberg Model

Understanding the COMPETENCIES of those we serve requires more than words and good intentions. The journey toward competence requires the willingness to learn from ones experiences and act.

There is much that we as Leaders & Managers have chosen not learn about those whom we serve, even though understanding their core competencies is essential to helping them. One of the most valuable skills as leaders is to understand our teams strength and weakness and channel their skills in order to serve the organisation fully.

Let's begin with a real case:

Ali Khan is a highly qualified individual. He has the right mix of skills and knowledge that is required to work as a Sales Executive. However, his actual job performance is nowhere near what is expected from a man possessing skills and knowledge that Ali has.

His actual job performance does not match the expected job behavior of a man of Ali’s caliber. What is it that makes Ali an ideal candidate but stops him from actually performing on his job?

So, what is wrong? How can his leader/manager help him?

The answer to this lies in the word ‘Competency’. Competency is a combination of skills, job attitude, and knowledge which is reflected in job behavior that can be observed, measured and evaluated.

Let us learn more about ‘Competency’, how a leader may assist in transforming his/her team to better performance and discuss the important model of competency, the ‘Competency Iceberg Model’.

We will discuss the following topics:

1. What is Competency
2. What are the features of Competencies
3. Competency Types
4. Describe the Competency Iceberg Model
5. Benefits of the Iceberg Model
6. Summary

1. Competencies refer to skills or knowledge that leads to superior performance.
2. Competencies are individual abilities or characteristics that are key to effectiveness in work.
3. Competencies are not “fixed” and causally be developed with effort and support.
4. Competencies can apply at organizational, individual, team, and occupational and functional levels.
5. ‘Competence’ on the other hand means the condition or state of being competent.
6. ‘Competent’ is when a person is qualified to perform to a requisite standard of the processes of a job.

Some examples of competencies required by the employees and that a leader needs to be aware of: -

History of Competency

In the late 1960’s, the Occupational Competence movement was initiated by Dr. David McClelland who was a Professor of Psychology at Harvard Business School. McClelland found that traditional tests such as academic aptitude and knowledge tests, did not predict success in the job.

Since this find and even during the early 70’s, leading organizations have been using competencies to help recruit, select and manage their outstanding performers. A supporting research conducted by McClelland found that students, who did poor in Universities, as long as they passed, did just as well in life as the top students.

Through this McClelland proved that superior performance is not always measured by test scores but rather related to hidden traits and qualitative behaviors.

So, what are the Components of Features of Competency?

According to research, there are six core components and they are:

Going thru each one in detail is beyond the scope of this article. But please contact me if interested.

Competencies can broadly be classified into two categories:

1. BASIC COMPETENCIES
2. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES

Basic Competencies: They are existent in all individuals but only their degree of existence differs. For example, problem solving is a competency that exists in every individual but in varying degrees.

Professional Competencies: They are job related and are above the basic competencies. For example, handling a sales call effectively is a competency that a sales personnel would be required to have.

So, COMPETENCIES = BASIC COMPETENCIES + PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES

Types of Basic Competencies

The basic competencies encompass the following:

• Intellectual Competencies: Those which determine the intellectual ability of a person.
• Motivational Competencies: Those which determine the level of motivation in an individual.
• Emotional Competencies: Those which determine an individual's emotional quotient.
• Social Competencies: Those that determine the level of social ability in a person.

Types of Professional Competencies

The professional competencies can be classified as:

• Generic Competencies: They are those which are considered essential for all staff, regardless of their function or level, that is, communication, program execution, processing tools, linguistic, etc. These competencies include broad success factors not tied to a specific work function or industry. They usually focus on leadership or emotional intelligence behaviors.
• Managerial Competencies: They are those which are considered essential for staff with managerial or supervisory responsibility in any service or program. Some examples of managerial competencies are: customer orientation, organizing skills, cross functional perspective, planning skills, execution skills, analytical skills, decision making, delegation, leadership
• Functional/Technical Competencies: These are specific competencies which are considered essential to perform any job in the organization within a defined technical or functional area of work. Some examples of functional/technical competencies are: business awareness, business skills, technical skills.

There also exist categories of Competencies that we will discuss here and there are two types:

Threshold Competencies and Differentiating Competencies

Threshold Competencies: These are the essential characteristics that everyone in the job needs to be minimally effective. However, this does not distinguish superior from average performers.

Differentiating Competencies: These factors distinguish superior from average performers.

Let's dig a bit deeper on the subject of "Threshold Competency". What does it mean exactly?

It is important to understand whether competencies are unique to a particular job or whether they are generic in nature. According to the MCBer research, twelve characteristics were identified related to managerial effectiveness, whereas seven were found to be threshold competencies.

Every job at any level in the organization would have a threshold competency. Threshold competency is the bare minimum required to perform the job. It is summarized as a quality that a person needs in order to do a job.

It differs from competency, such that it does not offer any aid in distinguishing superior performance from average and poor performance.

What are Core Competencies?

1. ‘Core Competencies’ are the competencies that help transcend any single business event within the organization. 
2. It is important for organizations to identify, develop and manage organizational core competencies that drive large enterprise critical projects.
3. This is so because some projects are so complex and massive that it is impossible for a single individual to possess the competencies required to successfully complete a project.

We can't talk about "Core Competencies" without mentioning "Workplace Competencies"

What are Workplace Competencies?

• ‘Workplace Competencies’ focus on individuals instead of the organization.
• Therefore, workplace competencies may vary by job positions.
• The unit of measure is people rather than the business.

In the chart below, we compare Core Vs. Workplace Competencies.

Who Identifies Competencies?

Competencies can be identified by one of more of the following category of people:

• Leaders & Experts
• HR Specialists
• Job analysts
• Psychologists
• Industrial Engineers etc.

In consultation with: Line Managers, Current & Past Role holders, Supervising Seniors, Reporting and Reviewing Officers, Internal Customers, Subordinates of the role holders

Myths about Competency

• Competence is a state of being that provides a qualification to perform.
• It is in relation to performance, a necessary but not sufficient condition.
• Competencies cannot guarantee that workers will perform adequately.
• However, workers cannot perform to standards without competencies.
• Extremely competent workers may fail on the job due to a variety of personal or environmental factors.
• Whereas, some others that lack competencies can make up for a lot of shortcomings with exceptionally hard work.

Types of Competency Characteristics

There are five types of competency characteristics:

The Iceberg Model for competencies takes the help of an iceberg to explain the concept of competency. An iceberg has just one-ninth of its volume above water and the rest remains beneath the surface in the sea.

Similarly, a competency also has some components which are visible like knowledge and skills but other behavioral components like attitude, traits, thinking styles, self-image, organizational fit etc. are hidden or beneath the surface

Competency Studies of Lyle M. Spencer and Signe M. Spencer:

L.M Spencer and S.M. Spencer gave the definition and structure of the competence as five types of competence characteristics in the Iceberg Model.

Hence, competence is an individual underlying characteristic and is a fairly deep and enduring part of a person personality and can predict behavior in a wide variety of situation and job tasks.

Competence is causally related to effective and superior performance in a job or situation and actually predicts who does something well or poorly as measured on a specific criterion or standard.

Components of the Iceberg Model

Importance of Iceberg Model

It is important to understand that there is a relation between the competencies which are above the surface and those which lie beneath in an iceberg. The aspects of competencies which lie below the surface like attitude, traits, thinking styles etc. directly influence the usage of knowledge and skills to complete a job effectively.

Let us try to understand this through an example.

Consider that a highly qualified person with the perfect combination of skills and knowledge is chosen for an esteemed project. However, if the person is not happy to work with his new team members, he may not be able to perform to the best of his abilities.

The benefits are numerous but we will discuss the two main ones: Micro and Macro Benefits:

MICRO-BENEFITS

• Identify and prioritize skills, knowledge and personal attributes required for the job
• Use past and current behavior to predict future behavior
• Ensure consistency and fairness of selection process
• Minimize Hiring Risks
• Communicate clear expected behaviors to job holders for becoming superior performers

MACRO-BENEFITS

• Set core organizational capabilities
• Align aggregate behaviors to vision, strategies, priorities & goals
• Promote positive behavioral change
• Introduce high performance qualities (Job, Family & Organization Specific)

Competency Based-Behavioral Interviewing (CBBI)

the hiring process has also undergone a change therefore a lot of emphasis is being put on the hidden behavioral aspects as well to make a sound decision.

They believe that the behavioral aspects can be developed through proper guidance and good management.

Most of the organizations look at just the visible components of competencies: the knowledge and skills in the traditional method of hiring. Hence, a complete picture regarding the competence of a person consists of both visible and hidden aspects and it becomes necessary to understand both to arrive at identifying the best man for a job.

I highly recommend reading the following link about tips on how to conduct Behavioral interviews.

In this article my mission is to convey the following key points:

• Competencies refer to skills or knowledge that leads to superior performance. Competencies are individual abilities or characteristics that are key to effectiveness in work.
• The Iceberg Model for competencies takes the help of an iceberg to explain the concept of competency.
• A competency also has some components which are visible like knowledge and skills but other behavioral components like attitude, traits, thinking styles, self-image, organizational fit etc. are hidden or beneath the surface.

Thank you for Reading.

About the Author and Facilitator:

Please peruse thru my profile to read more about myself.

Dr. Hussein Saad --- +961 71 493 991 --- [email protected]