Leadership Development Report

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

A Model of the Dimensions of Leadership Competency 6

Self-Management

A Model of the Core Competencies of Self Management 7

Self Management Dimension 8

Examples of Excellence in Self Management 8

Examples of Poor Self Management 9

Core Competencies of Self-Management

Work Habits 10

Work Attitudes 11

Stress Management 12

Self Insight 13

Learning 14

Situations Requiring Focus on Self Management 15

Leading Others

A Model of the Core Competencies of Leading Others 16

Leading Others Dimension 17

Examples of Excellence in Leading Others 17

Examples of Leading Others Poorly 18

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Communicating 19

Interpersonal Awareness 20

Motivating Others 21

Developing Others 22

Influencing 23

Situations Requiring Focus on Leading Others 24

Task Management

A Model of the Core Competencies of Task Management 25

Task Management Dimension 26

Examples of Excellence in Task Management 26

Examples of Poor Task Management 27

Core Competencies of Task Management

Executing Tasks 28

Solving Problems 29

Managing Information and Material Resources 30

Managing Human Resources 31

Enhancing Performance 32

Situations Requiring Focus on Task Management 33

Innovation

A Model of the Core Competencies of Innovation 34

Innovation Dimension 35

Examples of Excellence in Innovation 35

Examples of Poor Innovation 36

Core Competencies of Innovation

Creativity 37

Enterprising 38

Integrating Perspectives 39

Forecasting 40

Managing Change 41

Situations Requiring Focus on Innovation 42

Social Responsibility

A Model of the Core Competencies of Social Responsibility 43

Social Responsibility Dimension 44

Examples of Excellence in Social Responsibility 44

Examples of Poor Social Responsibility 45

Core Competencies of Civic Responsibility

Civic Responsibility 46

Social Knowledge 47

Ethical Processes 48

Leading Others Ethically 49

Acting with Integrity 50

Situations Requiring Focus on Social Responsibility 51 Introduction

Although people tend to recognize leadership when they see it, defining leadership with precision and detail is often more difficult. The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed model of leadership to aid in the development of leaders.

This report describes competencies of leadership—valuable skills, abilities, behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge areas. Although leaders are not going to master every competency, they will need to be aware of all of them, know their own shortcomings, and focus on developing these competencies in themselves or be able to recognize these qualities in others so they can select people who compensate for their weaknesses.

This model of leadership was developed through a number of processes, including:

a) Reviewing the academic literature on leadership,

b) Studying the practice of competency modeling and existing leadership competency models developed by corporations and government

agencies,

c) Analyzing the content of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), and

d) Interviewing member of Central Michigan University community (students, alumni, administrators, professors, and employers of our

graduates). Highlights of these interviews are presented at the end of this report.

Note. A technical report providing a more detailed description of the process of developing the competency model is available by emailing Stephen Wagner ([email protected]).

Introduction

Five dimensions of leadership competency are described in this report.

· Self Management

· Leading Others

· Task Management

· Innovation

· Social Responsibility

A graphic depiction of this model is presented on page six. Although there are many things that leaders are expected to do, these five dimensions capture the primary categories that are considered the most important for leadership success.

Each of the dimensions includes several core competencies that are considered valuable skills, abilities, behaviors, attitudes and knowledge areas in which leaders are expected to excel. This report describes each competency dimension by:

a) Displaying a model of the core competencies for that dimension,

b) Defining the leadership dimension,

c) Providing examples of excellent and poor leadership behavior for that

dimension,

d) Defining the core competencies for that dimension, and

e) Identifying situations that require focusing on that dimension.

LEADERSHIP

Self-Management

Leading Others

Task Management

Innovation

Social Responsibility

A Model of the Dimensions of Leadership Competency

· Time Management

· Goal Orientation

· Organization Skills

· Work Ethic

· Follow Through

Work Habits

Learning

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Work Attitudes

· Initiative

· Effort

· Persistence

· Energy

· Independence

· Learning Strategies

· Intellectual Curiosity

· Continuous Learning

· Seeking Feedback

Stress Management

Self Insight

· Self Control

· Stress Tolerance

· Personal Resiliency

· Work-Life Balance

· Adaptability

· Optimism

· Self Confidence

· Self Awareness

· Humility

· Suspending Prejudices

A Model of Core Competencies for Self-Management

Self Management Dimension

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Good leaders know their own values, strengths, and limitations and are able to control their emotions and behaviors. They must strive for personal development by engaging in continuous learning and being willing to seek help when needed or admit when they have made a mistake. They should be able to adapt to stressful or dynamic situations and be able to maintain a balance between their work and non-work lives.

Examples of Excellence in Self-Management

A sales manager from a real estate agency had overcome challenges in less difficult markets. As a result, he was moved into the most challenging market in Metro Detroit. As soon as he realized the complexities of his job, he sought advice from more established sales counselors, managers, area vice presidents and regional vice presidents. He drew from others’ experiences and worked longer hours to incorporate these newly learned strategies. He quickly adapted to his new tasks without getting emotionally overwhelmed and brought energy, dedication, out of the box thinking, ownership and accountability to the site. As a result, the agency sold more properties.

A Resident Hall Advisor (RA) was too busy with her leadership role and felt she was neglecting her academic and personal life. Since she was living where she worked, she found herself getting too involved in the personal lives of her residents, and in general, was constantly doing too much for others. Due to this situation, she found no time for herself. She learned to set strong boundaries for keeping her personal life separate by scheduling specific time to meet with her residents. She learned her limitations and her priorities changed because of them. She took more time for herself, school, family, and friends and as a result she had more energy and focus for her RA role. In the long run, she accomplished more.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Examples of Poor Self-Management

A student was asked to head a committee to raise funds for an upcoming group trip. He had never participated in any fundraising project before, but felt as though he could lead effectively anyway. The president of the organization informed him of a campus fundraising workshop being held as part of an enrichment series for student organizations. Instead of taking the president’s advice and attending the workshop, the student developed a poor attitude and blamed his group members for lacking the necessary expertise. When the fundraising effort failed, he was asked to explain the failure. The student refused to acknowledge his own lack of ability and unwillingness to seek improvement. He said that they were too busy to attend the fundraising workshop and the failure of the project was due to the irresponsibility of his group members.

Despite having a heavy class load, a member of a student group chose to be an officer on the executive board. Because she was poorly skilled at managing her academic and organizational duties, she regularly handed in reports late, missed meetings, and attended none of the group’s social activities. When the organization’s president questioned her about this poor performance, she made excuses about the late reports and said she felt harassed. She began badmouthing the group and its members to other students. Eventually, she resigned the office and left the organization.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Self-Management

Work Habits

· Time Management: Making good use of time by organizing, prioritizing and scheduling tasks.

· Goal Orientation: Setting and attaining specific and challenging goals for oneself.

· Organization Skills: Organizing one’s responsibilities and performing them in an efficient manner.

· Work Ethic: Being diligent to ensure the successful completion of tasks related to one’s job as a leader.

· Follow Through: Ensuring that one’s promises are realized in behavior; doing what one said one would do.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Self-Management

Work Attitudes

· Initiative: Initiating tasks and taking on new challenges.

· Effort: Exerting oneself to complete tasks successfully and achieve goals.

· Persistence: Enduring in one’s tasks despite challenges or difficulties.

· Energy: Maintaining progress and enthusiasm throughout the completion of a task.

· Optimism: Having a positive outlook about oneself and others.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Self-Management

Stress Management

· Self Control: Controlling one’s emotions even in difficult or challenging situations.

· Stress Tolerance: Remaining effective even when situations become stressful.

· Personal Resiliency: Withstanding and overcoming stressful situations.

· Work/Life Balance: Controlling the influence of stresses of one’s non-work life on work life and vice-versa.

· Adaptability: Adapting to changing or dynamic situations.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Self-Management

Self-Insight

· Self Confidence: Believing in one’s self and in one’s ability to perform a successful job as a leader and acting accordingly.

· Self-Awareness: Assessing one’s success in learning or working activities and being honest about said judgments. Knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses and knowledge of one’s boundaries and limits.

· Self Reliance: Being able to work and think without the guidance or supervision of others.

· Humility: Being able to have a realistic perspective of one’s worth and ability to admit to one’s mistakes.

· Suspending Judgment: Keeping one’s personal beliefs and biases from overly influencing one’s decisions.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Self Management

Learning

· Learning Strategies: Learning new techniques for developing oneself through the use of multiple approaches.

· Intellectual Curiosity: Valuing learning and seeking situations to increase one’s knowledge.

· Continuous Learning: Keeping informed on updates to one’s profession and leadership in general.

· Seeking Feedback: Willingness to seek feedback on one’s performance as a leader and to use the feedback to learn and grow as a leader.

SELF

MANAGEMENT

Situations Requiring Focus on Self Management

· Importance of Individual Goal Setting: When an organization requires its members to periodically set their own goals, organization skills, time management, and self-awareness are particularly important.

· Role Conflict: When an individual has to deal with conflicting duties as part of their job as a leader, a variety of self-management competencies may become very important. These include stress tolerance, resilience, and prioritizing demands.

· Role Overload: If there is an inconsistency between the expectations of others and one’s ability to fulfill those expectations, then persistence, learning strategies, and self-monitoring are important self-management competencies for a leader.

· Significance of Error: When an error will result in extreme and extensive negative outcomes, leaders must be aware of their own performance to avoid mistakes.

· Frustrating Situations: When uncontrollable circumstances result in difficulties attaining goals, leaders have no control, they must have control over their emotions, be aware of their own limitations, and know when they have to improve in order to complete work.

· Required Continuity or Alertness: When leaders must maintain concentration or awareness because the situation continuously changes, they must be able to keep themselves on track and know how they must adapt to deal with a new situation.

· Communicating with Coworkers

· Active Listening

· Facilitating Discussion

· Public Speaking

· Developing External Contacts

· Communicating Outside the Organization

Communicating

Interpersonal

Awareness

Influencing

Leading

Others

· Psychological Knowledge

· Social Orientation

· Social Perceptiveness

· Service Orientation

· Nurturing Relationships

· Cooperating

· Persuading

· Resolving Conflicts/Negotiating

· Empowering

· Inspiring

· Political Savvy

Developing

Others

Motivating Others

· Taking Charge

· Orienting Others

· Setting Goals for Others

· Reinforcing Success

· Developing and Building Teams

· Knowledge of Principles of Learning

· Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others

· Assessing Others

· Coaching, Developing and Instructing

A Model of Core Competencies for Leading Others

Leading Others Dimension

LEADING

OTHERS

Leaders must maximize the potential of others and motivate them to attain shared goals. They must be able to manage individual and group performance with an understanding of group dynamics and team building. Leaders must actively listen and communicate effectively to persuade others and build consensus and trust. They should understand and be empathic toward individual’s emotions and needs and be able to resolve conflicts in a respectful manner.

Examples of Excellence in Leading Others

A manager was assigned to a store where the existing employees had been managed by fear for many years. The newly assigned manager had an open door policy and communicated daily with the employees during frequent store walks. He also worked hand in hand with each employee over the period of 1½ years. He held luncheons for all the employees and kept the lines of communication open. He handled problems as they arose and nothing was ignored. He challenged people to see him as an associate rather than as an authoritarian manager watching over them. He was involved in the community and had a genuine interest in others. Because of his actions, he was able to improve the store’s morale. The overall store’s conditions improved along with customer service and sales.

A new student organization had a hard time getting off the ground soon after its founder left. One of the members volunteered to be president. She worked well with her executive board, giving them responsibilities, and expecting results.  She listened to members' needs (meeting times, office space, projects) and acted in their best interests.

There was camaraderie, exchange of ideas, and acceptance of differences of opinions academic status.  Members helped each other to understand student policies, shared conversation over lunch, and felt comfortable with voicing their frustrations. Word got out, and more students joined and enjoyed participating in the various get-togethers.

LEADING

OTHERS

Examples of Leading Others Poorly

There had been a work situation in which a subordinate's action could have been interpreted in two ways: either a costly intentional mistake or an honorable action to assist others and help the organization. The manager could have made a 5-minute phone call to the subordinate, which would have made it clear that her intentions were honorable. However, no call was made. The manager's assistant was highly confident that the mistake was intentional. The manager chose to let his assistant draft a disciplinary letter to the subordinate. The letter was then distributed to several people. Upon receiving the letter, the subordinate provided the manager with documentation that proved that her actions had good intentions. In addition, independent reviews of the matter (union, peers, etc.) also concluded that the subordinate indeed had good intentions. The manager had clearly made a mistake, but never apologized. As a result, the subordinate doubted whether her manager had the leadership qualities to succeed in the future. Ultimately, loss of trust occurred between the manager and his other subordinates.

A leader made a decision with no input from others and little background research. When the decision was announced, and those people affected were asked for background information to support the decision, none was forthcoming. Thus, the leader and her support staff spent many hours to try to 'spin' the decision, making up data along the way. There was no ownership of the decision. The leader’s lack of using a participatory style was so offensive that even those who internally agreed with her decision resisted supporting it due to her autocratic style. She did not spend the time gathering relevant information or input from key subordinates and experienced resistance for her decision.

LEADING

OTHERS

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Communicating

· Communicating with Coworkers: Communicating information using either face-to-face, written, or via telephone or computer.

· Active Listening: Listening intently to what others are saying and asking for further details when appropriate.

· Facilitating Discussion: Promoting the involvement of various individuals and a norm of openness and collegiality during group discussions.

· Public Speaking: Vocalizing clearly, maintaining a comfortable pace, and using appropriate non-verbal behaviors during formal presentations. Utilizing visual aids during presentations. Engaging the audience and responding to questions from the audience.

· Developing External Contacts:  Developing portfolio of external contacts within the professional community.

· Communicating Outside the Organization: Exchanging information with others outside the organization (e.g., customers, other organizations) using face-to-face, written, telephonic or electronic means.

LEADING

OTHERS

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Interpersonal Awareness

· Psychological Knowledge: Knowledge of human behavior, mental processes, and individual and group performance.

· Social Orientation: Being comfortable interacting and working with others.

· Social Perceptiveness: Awareness and understanding of how and why others are reacting the way they are.

· Service Orientation: Actively seeking out ways to assist people in their duties.

· Nurturing Relationships: Building positive and cooperative working relationships with others. Maintaining relationships over time.

LEADING

OTHERS

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Motivating Others

· Taking Charge: A willingness to initiate the activities of groups and lead others toward common goals.

· Orienting Others: Orienting new employees to provide an overview of the organization and its policies, work rules, and job responsibilities. Reviewing current job assignments for existing employees to identify work experiences that will help the employee develop.

· Setting Goals for Others: Setting challenging but attainable goals for individuals and groups. Specifying actions, strategies and timelines necessary for goal attainment.

· Reinforcing Success: Measuring and tracking progress toward goals to evaluate individual and group performance and provide feedback. Rewarding positive work behavior to reinforce activities that are aligned with the goals of the work group and the organization.

· Developing and Building Teams: Managing inertia and conflict during the formative stages of group functioning. Enhancing the performance of a group and the satisfaction of its members by promoting cooperation, trust, and confidence in the group.

LEADING

OTHERS

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Developing Others

· Knowledge of Principles of Learning: Knowledge of learning theories and design of individual and group teaching plans.

· Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others: Translating or explaining information in a way that can be understood and used to support responses or feedback to others.

· Assessing Others: Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of others’ efforts at learning or performing tasks.

· Coaching, Developing, Instructing: Coaching, teaching, and advising others to help them develop their knowledge and skills. Creating individual development plans. Selecting appropriate training courses to address developmental needs.

LEADING

OTHERS

Core Competencies of Leading Others

Influencing

· Cooperating: Working well with others to jointly achieve goals.

· Persuading: Communicating with others to convince them to perform a task or approach something in a different manner.

· Resolving Conflicts/Negotiating: Dealing with complaints, resolving conflicts and grievances of others. Encouraging others to come together and reconcile differences.

· Empowering: Delegating authority and investing power in others.

· Inspiring: Convincing others to believe in the organization’s values and to act in accordance with those values.

· Political Savvy: Knowledge of the political climate and how decisions will be affected by the organization’s culture.

LEADING

OTHERS

Situations Requiring Focus on Leading Others

· Employee Participation: When employees are active participants in the decision-making process, cooperation, coordination, and conflict resolution strategies are important competencies for leaders.

· Type of Team: Based on the type of team being lead (new or experienced, high interdependence vs. low interdependence), leaders must be able to adapt how they guide, direct, interact with, and motivate group members.

· Group Socialization: When a new member joins the group, the leader must use teaching, coaching, and mentoring to acclimate the person to the group.

· Multiple Modes of Communication: When leaders must communicate with different types of groups and individuals, they must be able to recognize and adapt to the necessary modes of communication that will fit their needs.

· Supervisory Roles: When leaders are expected to train, coach, or supervise others, they need to understand others’ beliefs, abilities, and perspectives.

· Sales and Marketing Roles: When leaders must be able to persuade or influence people easily, they need to have good communication and negotiation skills and listen effectively to others.

· Task-Relevant Knowledge

· Delegating

· Attention to Detail

· Coordinating Work Activities

· Providing Feedback

· Multi-Tasking

Executing

Tasks

Solving Problems

Enhancing

Performance

· Analytic Thinking

· Analyzing Data

· Mental Focus

· Decision Making

· Designing Work Systems

TASK

MANAGEMENT

· Enhancing Task Knowledge

· Eliminating Barriers to

Performance

· Benchmarking

· Strategic Task Management

Managing

Human

Resources

Managing

Information and

Material

Resources

· Succession Planning/Recruiting

· Personnel Decision Quality

· Managing Personnel Policies

· Maintaining Safety

· Managing Materials & Facilities

· Managing Information Resources

· Performing Administrative Activities

· Maintaining Quality

A Model of Core Competencies for Task Management

Task Management Dimension

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Leaders use task-specific knowledge and experience to guide the group to attaining its goals. Leaders must engage in problem solving, delegation, time and resource management, and eliminating barriers to performance. Leaders also must strive for results and provide feedback to ensure effective contributions from all constituents

Examples of Excellence in Task Management

A group of students was involved in a consulting project.  One of the students emerged as a leader and mobilized them to achieve a goal. He took on the role of a communicator and a liaison between the client, the group, and the instructor. In addition, he worked hard to allow all group members to contribute to the project, despite their different skill levels and backgrounds. The group was extremely diverse and the situation was ripe for a conflict due to misunderstanding. The leader assigned tasks to group members and clarified responsibilities and deadlines. He also made sure that everyone was focused on the same goals because the nature of the project made it easy to shift the focus from essential tasks to other activities that were less important. Because of this, the group members invested a large amount of time, energy, and enthusiasm in the project. The leader achieved this level of group performance by empowering others.

A leader provided feedback to her employees effectively and in a timely manner. She set aside specific times to meet with the employees individually. She was mindful of the various work schedules and allowed the employees to schedule the sessions at their convenience. When it was time for a meeting to take place, she ensured that it was in a private setting. During the meeting the leader used constructive criticism, avoiding a negative focus. She explained what influenced her assessment by describing the task-specific behaviors over which the employee had direct control. When she outlined recommendations to address the employee’s performance improvement, she allowed the employee to comment and then actively listened to the employee’s perspective. Finally, the leader and employee came to an understanding of the next steps the employee needed to undertake for future success.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Examples of Poor Task Management

A student organization was planning an event, which would require a substantial amount of funding from their private account. The treasurer of the organization informed the president that they did not have enough funding to host the event. An emergency meeting was called by the president of the organization, in which all of the executive members of the organization would attempt to resolve the situation. The president emailed the executive board members about the meeting one day before it was scheduled to be held. Upon arriving to the meeting, the president convened without even acknowledging that three of the eight executive members were not present. The treasurer fielded questions about the situation and took charge of the meeting by delegating tasks and responsibilities. There seemed to be no order to the schedule of the meeting. The president sat idly by, paying little attention, while the meeting was underway. The meeting came to a close without the president questioning the treasurer about the current allocation and history of the funds. The issue was never resolved and the event did not take place.

A company expected leadership and customer maintenance from its recruiters. A recruiter who was not very organized lost track of many of the people with whom she had been in contact. By not keeping in touch with these potential contractors meant to fill the company’s openings, she lost track of many individuals that could have filled these positions. When she was ready to recruit for these positions, she could remember talking to the people that would have been great fits, but, because of her lack of organization, she was unable to find their resumes or their contact information. Because of this, she had to spend extra time recruiting people. It cost her and the company valuable time and money.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Task Management

Executing Tasks

· Task-Relevant Knowledge: Knowledge of standard practices and procedures necessary to accomplish tasks.

· Delegating: Assigning tasks to the appropriate people based on knowledge of individuals, work processes, organizational planning and work group flow.

· Attention to Detail: Placing focus on the details of the task to be accomplished.

· Coordinating Work Activities: Coordinate the work-related activities necessary for task completion of all relevant constituents (both inside and outside of the group/organization). Adjusting one’s own plans in light of how others are acting or how the environment is changing

· .

· Providing Feedback: Providing both positive feedback and critiques, in a timely and constructive manner, to allow others to know how they are doing and improve on weaknesses.

· Multi-Tasking: Working on a variety of tasks simultaneously and shifting one’s resources between multiple systems when needed.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Task Management

Solving Problems

· Analytic Thinking: Using existing information to logically evaluate situations and solve problems. Utilizing inductive and deductive logic to make inferences.

· Analyzing Data: Summarizing and making inferences from information through the application of statistics and qualitative analyses.

· Mental Focus: Concentrating and avoiding distractions when making sense of information that is not immediately coherent.

· Decision Making: Quickly prioritizing and evaluating the relative costs and benefits of potential actions needed to complete a task.

· Designing Work Systems: Designating the responsibilities of individual jobs and structuring the work of groups in organizations.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Task Management

Managing Information and Material Resources

· Managing Materials and Facilities: Monitoring the delivery, inventory and flow of materials using tracking systems as well as, identifying and designing facility location/layout to maximize productivity.

· Managing Information Resources: Understanding information needs and providing access to efficient tools for project management, data analysis, strategic planning, and process controls.

· Performing Administrative Activities: Approving requests, handling paperwork, and performing other daily administrative tasks. Entering, transcribing, recording, or storing either written or electronic information.

· Maintaining Quality: Evaluating materials and information produced against a set of standards through the use of measures of quality in order to track system and/or group progress.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Task Management

Managing Human Resources

· Succession Planning/Recruiting: Examining organizational structure to identify staffing issues needed to achieve strategic objectives. Attracting many qualified applicants for open positions within the organization.

· Personnel Decision Quality: Making good personnel decisions by identifying and assessing the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to successfully perform a role in the organization.

· Managing Personnel Policies: Developing and monitoring policies, programs, and procedures related to work practices and compensation.

· Maintaining Safety: Minimizing potential safety hazards and maintaining compliance with company policies, safety laws, and regulations.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Core Competencies of Task Management

Enhancing Performance

· Enhancing Task Knowledge: Involving the group in discovering methods to enhance task performance and redirecting the group to achieve better task completion.

· Eliminating Barriers to Performance: Identifying roadblocks and redundancies in work processes. Promoting improvements in task performance.

· Benchmarking: Facilitating communication outside of the organization to identify and integrate the best practices in task design and performance.

· Strategic Task Management: Matching the appropriate people and resources in the organization to maximize task performance. Maintaining task performance through times of turbulence.

TASK

MANAGEMENT

Situations Requiring Focus on Task Management

· Formalization: When the rules, procedures, and communication of an organization are written down, a leader must communicate and enforce the rules while setting a good example.

· Job Enrichment: When leading groups that have jobs characterized by autonomy, a variety of responsibilities, and extensive feedback, competence in many areas of task management will be important.

· Task Assignment: When the immediate supervisor is expected to assign tasks and goals for the group, deductive reasoning, implementing ideas, and attention to detail are particularly important.

· Responsibility/Accountability: When leaders will be judged only by the end result of their work, leaders should be extremely careful that everything happens according to plan so as not to adversely affect the end result.

· Significance of Details: When thoroughness is key for success, leaders must be able to manage details and ensure the successful completion of tasks in a timely manner.

· Frequency and Strictness of Deadlines: When the work must be done by frequent, stringent deadlines, leaders must be able to manage time well and prioritize.

· Generating Ideas

· Critical Thinking

· Synthesis/Reorganization

· Creative Problem Solving

Creativity

Enterprising

Managing

Change

INNOVATION

· Sensitivity to Situations

· Challenging the Status Quo

· Intelligent Risk-Taking

· Reinforcing Change

· Problem Identification

· Seeking Improvement

· Gathering Information

· Independent Thinking

· Technological Savvy

Forecasting

Integrating

Perspectives

· Openness to Ideas

· Research Orientation

· Collaborating

· Engaging in Non-Work Interests

· Perceiving Systems

· Identifying of Downstream

Consequences

· Visioning

· Managing the Future

A Model of Core Competencies for Innovation

Innovation Dimension

INNOVATION

Leaders must be able to think creatively while taking initiative and calculated risks. Effective leaders have a vision beyond the immediate work of the group. This involves exploring and integrating diverse perspectives and recognizing unexpected opportunities.

Examples of Excellence in Innovation

A team was having difficulties with meeting a customer’s deadlines and expectations. The individual was a long-standing customer with whom the team had previously completed project work successfully; however, the current project was causing many problems for the team members. The leader held a quick meeting to discuss the problem, where she implemented a creative problem-solving approach. She asked each team member to interview three other members of the team (including the customer) to understand their perspectives about the problem. They were not allowed to include their own perspective when reporting their findings; rather, they had to be objective and professional. The process of debriefing these interviews provided the group an opportunity to analyze objective information, which led to a consensus about the problem and how to fix it. This creative approach was useful because it involved everyone and eliminated the conflicts that typically arise from hidden agendas and defensive egos. The project was completed in an efficient manner and the customer was happy.

A manager approached his division leader with a new technical solution that his group was eager to solve a difficult problem that the company was facing regarding electronically linking external trading partners. The division leader was very apprehensive about implementing the program. However, the manager and his group had strong feelings about the capability of the technical solution proposed. He convinced the division leader to permit a one-week trial run, and was willing to assume complete responsibility for the project outcome. He used technology to electronically link partners to information about the company’s schedules, product rules, and ability to deliver in the order-fulfillment chain. A process that previously took days was completed instantaneously. The result was a significant financial savings for the organization and the partners.

INNOVATION

Examples of Poor Innovation

A grocery store emphasized to its newly hired employees that they should perform given tasks strictly according to the company’s preferred manner. After several months of following these traditional procedures, three employees developed a new method for doing the work. They discovered that by working in teams, they were more efficient, the work became more enjoyable, and they could interact more with customers. The manager discovered this new practice after the employees had tried it for several weeks. Despite the increased productivity of the teams, he could not accept this change from the status quo. He no longer allowed the employees to work together. Therefore, productivity declined and the work atmosphere became less enjoyable.

The leader of an information technology division was asked to shorten a process that was used to test software solutions. She was provided with some of the brightest technical and analytical people as resources and was also given access to many research organizations. She was too focused on examining current problems with the process rather than envisioning what it may become in the future. Instead of trying a different approach and engaging the collective creative power of the team, she made it her personal agenda to keep making adjustments to the ways things had always been done (something that had been tried before with no success). The final software development project was ineffective due to its incapacity to withstand dynamic and unforeseen issues. This led to financial losses for the company.

INNOVATION

Core Competencies of Innovation

Creativity

· Generating Ideas: Coming up with a variety of approaches to problem solving.

· Critical Thinking: Logically identifying how different possible approaches are strong and weak, and analyzing these judgments.

· Synthesis/Reorganization: Finding a better way to approach problems through synthesizing and reorganizing the information.

· Creative Problem Solving: Using novel ideas to solve problems as a leader.

INNOVATION

Core Competencies of Innovation

Enterprising

· Identifying Problem: Pinpointing the actual nature and cause of problems and the dynamics that underlie them.

· Seeking Improvement: Constantly looking for ways that one can improve one’s organization.

· Gathering Information: Identifying useful sources of information and gathering and utilizing only that information which is essential.

· Independent Thinking: Thinking ‘outside the box’ even if this sometimes may go against popular opinion.

· Technological Savvy: Understanding and utilizing technology to improve work processes.

INNOVATION

Core Competencies of Innovation

Integrating Perspectives

· Openness to Ideas: A willingness to listen to suggestions from others and to try new ideas.

· Research Orientation: Observing the behavior of others, reading extensively, and keeping your mind open to ideas and solutions from others. Reading and talking to people in related fields to discover innovations or current trends in the field.

· Collaborating: Working with others and seeking the opinions of others to reach a creative solution.

· Engaging in Non-Work Related Interests: Being well-rounded and seeking information from other fields and areas of life to find novel approaches to situations.

INNOVATION

Core Competencies of Innovation

Forecasting

· Perceiving Systems: Acknowledging important changes that occur in a system or predicting accurately when they might occur.

· Evaluating Long-Term Consequences: Concluding what a change in systems will result in long-term

· Visioning: Developing an image of an ideal working state of an organization.

· Managing the Future: Evaluating future directions and risks based on current and future strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

INNOVATION

Core Competencies of Innovation

Managing Change

· Sensitivity to Situations: Assessing situational forces that are promoting and inhibiting an idea for change.

· Challenging the Status Quo: Willingness to act against the way things have traditionally been done when tradition impedes performance improvements.

· Intelligent Risk-Taking: Being willing and able to take calculated risks when necessary.

· Reinforcing Change: Encouraging subordinates to come up with innovative solutions. Recognizing and rewarding those who take initiative and act in a creative manner. Facilitating the institutionalization of change initiatives.

INNOVATION

Situations Requiring Focus on Innovation

· Importance of Organizational Goal Setting: When organizational goals are explicitly stated, identification of downstream consequences and appraisal of solutions are critical innovation competencies.

· Lack of Direction and Focus: When an organization lacks clear vision, leaders will need to develop an image of the future, utilizing creative ideas and information.

· Unexpected Problems: When a difficult problem arises, leaders must critically appraise the problem, arrive at a solution, and evaluate the solution quickly and effectively.

· Lack of Task Clarity: When tasks are not clearly defined, leaders must be able to be creative, inventive, and move in new directions when they arise.

· Lack of Task Specificity: When tasks are performed at one’s discretion, leaders must be able to figure out the best way to accomplish their work.

· Competitive Challenges: When leaders must compete or be aware of competitive pressures, they must be innovative in their approach to work and create new ideas before competitors.

· Communicating with the Community

· Helping the Community

· Civic Action

· Adopting Beneficial Values for Society

· Providing a Good Example

· Social Action

Civic Responsibility

Acting with

Integrity

Social

Knowledge

· Financial Ethics

· Work-Place Ethics

· Honesty and Integrity

· Being Accountable

· Courage of Convictions

Knowledge of:

· Sociology and Anthropology

· History and Geography

· Foreign Language

· Philosophy and Theology

· Organizational Justice Principles

· Legal Regulations

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Leading Others

Ethically

Ethical

Processes

· Open-Door Policy

· Instituting and Following Fair Procedures

· Explaining Decisions in a Respectful Manner

· Ensuring Ethical Behavior of Subordinates

· Servant Leadership

· Valuing Diversity

· Distributing Rewards Fairly

· Responsibility for Others

· Avoiding Exploitative Mentality

A Model of Core Competencies for Social Responsibility

Social Responsibility Dimension

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Leaders must act with integrity, honesty, and justice. They must work in the best interest of others, showing respect and empathy for unique individual and cultural differences. Good leaders create a culture that promotes high ethical standards along with personal, organizational, and civic responsibility. Ethical leaders recognize and conduct themselves in concert with universal moral principles as well as specific values, laws, and ethics relevant to their group or organization.

Examples of Excellence in Social Responsibility

A Resident Hall Advisor realized that none of her residents had received an invitation to compete for Freshman of the Year. She knew that all students who were in the top ten percent academically during their year as a freshman should have received a letter inviting them to compete for the honor. She immediately checked with other RAs in various halls and confirmed her suspicions. She also found out that finalists had already been selected and the process was closed. She called the chair of the selection committee for Freshman of the Year and the committee’s president. She found out that the wrong year group had mistakenly received invitations to compete. She persisted in her efforts to ensure fair treatment of the students for whom she was responsible. She rallied other students and administrators to get the selection committee to restart the process and the appropriate students were allowed to compete.

An older couple was seated in a restaurant next to another family waiting for service. After a short while, a waitress came to take the couple’s order.  The couple told her that the other family was there first she should wait on them.  She replied, "That's okay; they can wait.  Besides, I don't like to wait on those kind of people anyway."  They were an ethnic-minority family. The couple thanked the waitress, got up and began to walk out.  At the register, the manager asked if everything was all right.  The couple told him what had happened. He said he appreciated their thoughts, invited them to go back into the dining area, and said he'd take care of the situation. He walked over to the African-American family, apologized for the wait, and took their order.  As he walked back toward the kitchen, he stopped to talk with the waitress. He served the family himself and again offered his apologies for the wait.  

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Examples of Poor Social Responsibility

Several years ago a group of students were taking a class together as a cohort. These students all knew each other and were living together in the same residence hall. One influential member of this group had an idea that could result in everyone getting a good grade on the class final. The final was going to be essay questions selected from 4-5 questions given to the class in advance. His idea was to have everyone have their blue books filled out with the answers to the questions before the exam. He was inappropriately using his strong interpersonal skills and his charisma to persuade others to commit an unethical act. Fortunately, others in the group had the courage to notify the appropriate authorities the night before the exam. The authorities dealt with this individual and prevented the scheme from coming to fruition.

A student group planned to sponsor a concert, but had problems securing finances. To acquire enough funds, the group’s chair agreed to work with two other student groups in a collaborative effort to sponsor a campus wide concert. She subsequently became the chair of this new collaborative committee and began meeting with students from the other groups. The make up of the committee was demographically diverse. The chair advocated for hiring a performer liked by the student group she represented.. When concerns about the group’s lyrics were mentioned, the committee came up with a more multicultural group to hire. The chair rejected this alternative because her student group had hired the band in the past. She again advocated for hiring the performer preferred by her student group and then insisted they vote. She was insensitive to the cultural diversity of the committee and her attempts at persuasion alienated the other people on the committee. The college ultimately rejected the performer that the chair supported due to concerns over racist and misogynist lyrics. The collaborative committee broke up, and it resulted in strained relations of the three groups.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Core Competencies of Social Responsibility

Civic Responsibility

· Communicating with the Community: Communicating organization’s intentions and activities to the public (e.g., local press, radio, television) and representing the organization in community affairs and public activities to promote awareness and foster goodwill.

· Helping the Community: Meeting the needs of the community by promoting opportunities for corporate giving of financial and human resources.

· Civic Action: Supporting participation in civic duties by encouraging others to vote and engaging in other duties of the political system.

· Adopting Beneficial Values for Society: Seeking and embracing values that benefit society rather than the organization.

· Providing a Good Example: Always acting in accordance with society’s and the organization’s laws, rules, and guidelines, and behaving in fair and ethical manner.

· Social Action: Actively creating necessary change in one’s community or country by advocating for underrepresented or needy groups.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Core Competencies of Social Responsibility

Social Knowledge

· Sociology and Anthropology Knowledge: Knowledge of the political systems, values, beliefs, economic practices, and leadership styles of countries other than one’s home country, as well as knowledge of universal group dynamics, behavior, and socio-cultural history.

· History and Geography Knowledge: Knowledge of the physical location and relationships between different land and sea regions and the historical events that have shaped the culture of inhabitants of these regions.

· Foreign Language Knowledge: Understanding a non-native language in order to communicate in oral and written form with people who speak that language.

· Philosophy and Theology Knowledge: Knowledge of ethics and the philosophical viewpoints behind various ethical models and understanding how different philosophical and religious systems affect behavior of groups and individuals within a cultural context.

· Knowledge of Organizational Justice Principles: Knowing and understanding distributive justice, informational justice, interpersonal justice, and procedural justice and being able to apply those principles to ensure subordinates are treated fairly.

· Legal Regulations: Awareness of local, state, and federal laws and regulations and abiding by these regulations at all times.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Core Competencies of Social Responsibility

Ethical Processes

· Open-Door Policy: Promoting a climate of openness and trust. Allowing individuals who are upset about an aspect of the organization to voice displeasures without retribution or repercussions.

· Instituting and Following Fair Procedures: Instituting and applying rules and procedures in a consistent, unbiased, accurate, and correctable fashion to ensure that subordinates know that fair rules are being used.

· Explaining Decisions in a Respectful Manner: Explaining decisions that affect subordinates thoroughly and in a manner that demonstrates dignity and respect for the subordinates.

· Ensuring Ethical Behavior of Subordinates: Instituting, training, and reinforcing policies to ensure that subordinates treat each other and the organization fairly and with respect and dignity. Disseminating information about laws and regulations to subordinates and make sure that they follow laws and regulations by overseeing, monitoring, and auditing behavior. Disciplinary action should be taken against those who do not comply with laws and regulations.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Core Competencies of Social Responsibility

Leading Others Ethically

· Servant Leadership: Being attentive to the needs of followers, empathizing with their concerns, and serving their best interests.

· Valuing Diversity: Encouraging a wide range of viewpoints among team members in order to avoid groupthink and create more culturally sensitive solutions.

· Distributing Rewards Fairly: Ensuring that pay, recognition, and other rewards are distributed in a fair manner, with clear guidelines and enforcement of those guidelines.

· Responsibility for Others: Willingness to be responsible for the behavior of subordinates in one’s organization and correct their unethical behaviors.

· Avoiding Exploitative Mentality: Not sacrificing concern for others or using people and exploiting them to achieve goals for the organization.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Core Competencies of Social Responsibility

Acting with Integrity

· Financial Ethics: Understanding and following ethical financial management and accounting principles.

· Work-Place Ethics: Understanding and following ethical guidelines at one’s work place.

· Honesty and Integrity: Behaving in an honest and ethical manner.

· Being Accountable: Accepting responsibility for the effects of one’s own actions.

· Courage of Convictions: Avoiding behavior that is unethical even if it may appear ethical to the public or may be consistent with the public opinion. Upholding decisions that are ethical yet unpopular.

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Situations Requiring Focus on Social Responsibility

· Information Sharing: When there are multiple sources of information, leaders must ethically and honestly communicate all information to subordinates, peers, and clients.

· Recruitment Processes: When employers must hire new members, leaders must recruit in an honest manner, following all relevant laws and regulations and recognizing the diversity in the workplace.

· Conflict Between Personal and Organizational Values: When organizational values vary significantly from the leader’s values, honesty, courage, integrity, and acting ethically are important competencies for leaders.

· Communicating Subjective Information: When the job involves communicating emotionally/psychologically valued subjective information, leaders need to respect the anonymity and confidentiality of the information.

· Responsibility for Safety of Others: When leaders have to be careful not to cause harm to others or are in charge of establishing policies to protect others, they need to understand social responsibility and behave ethically.

· Significance of Error: When the consequences of mistakes are severe and widespread, leaders must know the most ethical way to handle a situation so as not to cause terrible outcomes.

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the participation of the community of Central Michigan University in the development of this competency model. The contents of this report were greatly influenced by information gathered from interviews and surveys of seventy-five members of this community, including students, alumni, faculty, administrators, the Leadership Council, and employers of graduates of Central Michigan University.

A variety of sources of academic literature also influenced the development of this competency model (a complete reference list is included in a technical report that is available by emailing Steve Wagner at [email protected] ).

Three books in particular were utilized extensively. Northouse (2004) furnished information on leadership theories and his chapter on Leadership Ethics was especially useful. Schippman (1999) provided a great deal of practical information on topic of competency modeling. Peterson, Mumford, Borman, Jeanneret, & Fleishman (1999) supplied a detailed description of the O*NET, a database of job information maintained by the United States Department of Labor. The O*NET system was utilized by the authors to identify leadership competencies across a wide range of occupations. References for these books are presented below.

Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Peterson, N. G., Mumford, M. D., Borman, W. C., Jeanneret, P. R., & Fleishman, E. A.

(1999). An occupational information system for the 21st century: The development of O*NET. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Schippmann, J. S. (1999). Strategic job modeling: Working at the core of integrated

human resources. Mahwah, NJ: LEA.

About the Authors

Ashwini Bapat received her M.A. in Psychology from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in1999. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. 

Misty Bennett is currently a second-year doctoral student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Central Michigan University.  She received her B.S. degree in Chemistry and Psychology with a Mathematics minor from Central Michigan University. 

Gary Burns is completing a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. He received a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from West Virginia University.

Cathy Bush received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration from Central Michigan University. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. 

Kirsten Gobeski attended Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa, where she received BA in Psychology.  She is currently pursuing her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. 

Sara Langford graduated with a bachelors degree in Psychology at Central College in Pella, IA. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. 

Matthew Monnot received a B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in Sociology from Colorado State University, a M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida Tech, and is completing a PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University.  

Brigitte Pfeiffelmann received a BS in Psychology from Central Michigan University. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Central Michigan University. 

Brian Siers has a B.S. in Psychology, with minors in Business Administration and Philosophy, and an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, both from Central Michigan University.  He is currently completing his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.  

Aaron Stehura graduated from Ohio University with a BA in Psychology and Sociology.  He is currently a second-year doctoral student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Program at Central Michigan University. 

Stephen Wagner is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at CMU. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Northern Illinois University in 2000.