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Competency Model Development

Define what good looks like.

Your values tell people how to act. Your OKRs tell them what to hit. Almost nothing tells them what it takes to get there. We define it with your leadership team and build it into hiring, coaching and promotion.

THE MISSING PIECETHE HOWVALUESHow people act and decideTHE WHATOKRS AND KPISThe numbers you measureTHE WHO · USUALLY MISSINGCOMPETENCIESWhat it takes to get thereONE STANDARDFor everydecision.
THE MISSING PIECETHE HOWVALUESHow people act anddecideTHE WHATOKRS AND KPISThe numbers youmeasureTHE WHOUSUALLY MISSINGCOMPETENCIESWhat it takes to getthereONE STANDARDFor everydecision.

Values set the how. OKRs set the what. The skills that close the gap rarely get written down.

A Complete System Needs Three Parts

Most companies have two of them.

Most companies build two-thirds of a performance system. Values set the how. OKRs set the what. The skills that close the gap between them, the who, rarely get written down at all.

That is the piece that breaks first as you scale. It’s the piece we build with you.

The howValues

Your standard for how people treat each other, make decisions, and represent the company.

The whatOKRs & KPIs

Your targets: the revenue, growth, and retention numbers you measure against.

The who, usually missingCompetencies

The skills, behaviors, and judgment it takes to hit those targets without breaking those values. Leave it undefined and execution quietly comes apart as you grow, and nobody can say exactly why.

4–6 wks

Typical engagement.

3 phases

Align, calibrate, roll out.

1 standard

Hiring, coaching, promotion.

Gut Feel vs. a Calibrated Model

The same six decisions, run two ways. This is the whole argument for doing the work.

DecisionOn gut feelWith a calibrated model
ScreeningRésumés get read for pedigree. Every reviewer likes a different candidate for a different reason.Every candidate is read against the same short list of competencies. Disagreement becomes evidence, not opinion.
InterviewsSix interviewers ask six versions of the same question and compare impressions afterward.Each interviewer owns two competencies and scores against defined behaviors. Coverage is deliberate.
The decision“Strong yes. Great culture fit.”“Strong on business insight, thin on managing ambiguity, and here is the ramp plan for it.”
CoachingFeedback arrives as impressions, twice a year, after the number already slipped.Managers coach to a named behavior at a named level, in the week it matters.
PromotionThe loudest advocate wins the case. Everyone else quietly learns how the game is played.The person demonstrating the next level’s competencies gets it, and the room can see why.
When it isn’t workingNine months of hoping, then a surprise exit nobody documented.A named gap, a written plan, a date. The outcome is fair either way.

A Competency Isn’t Pass or Fail

OKRs are binary: hit or miss. Values are yes or no. A competency lives on a spectrum, and the end most teams never look at is the one that quietly stalls them: a strength used past its usefulness.

Less skilledAbsent, or working against the team. A gap to develop.
SkilledThe bar. Reliable, enough to run the plan as written.
TalentedA genuine strength others don’t have. Worth protecting.
OverusedThe same strength, past the point of usefulness, now costing something else.

Values and OKRs Both Hit a Ceiling

Both are necessary. Neither is enough.

Values tell people who to be
  • They’re aspirational, not actionable. “Collaborative” tells nobody what to do in a hard conversation.
  • Everyone can recite them. Almost nobody can demonstrate them on demand.
  • They rarely touch hiring, coaching, or promotion, so they never shape behavior.
  • They measure character, not capability. The right values with the wrong skills still misses.
OKRs tell you when, not why
  • They lag. By the time the number turns red, the skill gap behind it has compounded for months.
  • They create pressure without a development path: teams pushed at targets they were never equipped to hit.
  • They measure the destination, never the capability to reach it.
  • Hitting the number once doesn’t make it repeatable. Nothing turns a win into a standard.
PERFORMANCETIMETHE CEILINGcompetencies named here
PERFORMANCETIMETHE CEILINGcompetencies named here
Values + OKRs aloneEarly gains, then a plateau. The team knows who to be and what to hit, but not what it has to get better at to keep climbing.
With competencies namedThe same team, now building the specific capabilities the plan requires. The ceiling lifts because the constraint was capability, not motivation.
The ceilingWhere raising the target stops working. Most teams hit it and reach for a bigger OKR.

A competency model is what turns values into behavior and OKRs into a repeatable capability, instead of a target you either hit or you didn’t.

Three Signals It’s Time

No shared definition of “good”Your leadership team debates candidates for an hour and still can’t name what they’re measuring.
Hiring faster than you can agreeHeadcount is growing quarterly and the bar moves with whoever ran the last loop.
Gut feel no longer defensibleA board, a PE sponsor, or your own promotion cycle now needs a standard you can show.

Four Factors, Not a Library

We start from a validated, research-backed competency framework, the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect, then narrow it with your leadership team to the handful that actually predict performance in your business. Four factors keep the result usable instead of academic.

ThoughtsUnderstanding the business, making complex decisions, creating the new and different.
ResultsTaking initiative, managing execution, holding focus on performance.
PeopleBuilding real relationships, optimizing diverse talent, influencing without authority.
SelfBeing authentic, staying open, staying flexible when the plan changes.

A whole library, narrowed to the handful your plan needs. Dozens of competencies exist. A team can work on five or six. Knowing which five or six fit your plan, your market and your team is the work. Commit to five or six, one owner each, one review date.

Four Dynamics of a Championship Team

This practice is the Skills piece. We build it with the other three in view, because a model that ignores structure or dynamics doesn’t survive contact.

01AccomplishThe goals the business actually has to hit.
02 · This practiceSkillsThe capability required to get there, defined and calibrated.
03StructureThe roles, comp, and reporting lines that make it possible.
04DynamicsThe trust that makes the standard stick.

What a breakthrough team requires. Competencies give you the shared language for these five. They don’t replace them.

  • Affinity. Real relationships, not just working ones.
  • Ownership. Accountability nobody has to assign.
  • Interdependence. The team wins or loses together.
  • Purpose. A reason to push past average.
  • Risk. The safety to take it.

Three Phases, Four to Six Weeks

PHASE 01ALIGNThree to four organizationalgoals set with yourleadership team, withfoundational, transformativeand breakthrough levels foreachWHAT IT PRODUCESGoals and performance levelsPHASE 02SELECT AND CALIBRATEThe framework narrowed to thecompetencies that predictperformance in your function,each defined at every levelWHAT IT PRODUCESA calibrated frameworkPHASE 03ROLL OUTBuilt into hiring scorecards,interview guides and coachingconversations, so the modelruns decisions instead of adeckWHAT IT PRODUCESScorecards, guides, coaching
PHASE 01ALIGNThree to four organizational goals set withyour leadership team, with foundational,transformative and breakthrough levels foreachWHAT IT PRODUCESGoals and performance levelsPHASE 02SELECT AND CALIBRATEThe framework narrowed to the competenciesthat predict performance in your function,each defined at every levelWHAT IT PRODUCESA calibrated frameworkPHASE 03ROLL OUTBuilt into hiring scorecards, interviewguides and coaching conversations, so themodel runs decisions instead of a deckWHAT IT PRODUCESScorecards, guides, coaching

One standard for every people decisionHiring, coaching and promotion read from the same short list, so the bar stops moving with whoever ran the last loop.

Built with your CEO or functional leader and the three to six people who make hiring and promotion calls.

Each phase produces something the next one uses, and the last one puts the model to work in the decisions it was built for.
AlignSet three to four organizational goals with your leadership team, then define what foundational, transformative, and breakthrough performance looks like against each one.
Select & calibrateNarrow the framework to the competencies that predict performance in your function, and define what each one looks like at every level.
Roll outBuild the model into hiring scorecards, interview guides, and coaching conversations, so it runs decisions instead of sitting in a deck.

Deliverables

  • A calibrated competency framework mapped to your organizational goals
  • Level-specific behavioral indicators for every competency
  • Interview guides and hiring scorecards built on the framework
  • A coaching and development guide managers will actually use
  • Integration guidance for your existing performance review process

Competency model vs. job description. A job description lists duties. A competency model defines what performing those duties at a high level looks like: the behaviors and judgment that separate an average hire from a top one. One says what the role covers; the other says what excellence in it looks like.

The model sets the bar that executive recruiting and onboarding hires against and that executive coaching develops toward.

Why Us

Operators, not theoristsBuilt by executives who have hired, coached, and managed out against these competencies themselves.
Tied to go-to-marketCompetencies mapped to what your revenue strategy actually needs from the team this year.
Strategy executedA model built to run hiring and performance decisions, not to sit in a binder.
AI-acceleratedAI-assisted mapping and calibration compress a multi-month process into weeks. More on how in AI strategy.

Questions We Get

What is a competency model?

A framework that defines the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required to perform a role at a high level. It guides hiring, coaching, and promotion decisions.

How is it different from our values or OKRs?

Values define how you want people to behave. OKRs define what you need to hit. A competency model defines the skills required to close the gap between the two: the connective tissue most companies never write down.

How long does it take?

Four to six weeks across three phases: align on organizational goals, select and calibrate competencies with your leadership team, then roll the framework into hiring and coaching.

How is this different from a generic HR competency library?

Off-the-shelf libraries give you definitions. We calibrate those definitions to your business goals and your leadership team's read on what predicts performance, so the model reflects your organization, not a template.

Can it integrate with our existing performance reviews?

Yes. We build the framework to plug into whatever review process you already run, rather than requiring you to replace it.

Who needs to be involved?

Your CEO or functional leader, plus the three to six people who make hiring and promotion calls. Calibration only holds if the people using the model help build it.

Define what good looks like

Thirty minutes is usually enough to know whether this is the right practice for your team.

Schedule a conversation