While I was conducting a Human Capital Management planning session for one of my clients, the extremely successful Vice President of R&D asked the questions with the utmost of respect and sincerity; “I really don’t get this competency thing. It all seems like platitudes and buzzwords that are somehow supposed to make us feel good about something that I’m not sure of.  Can someone explain to me why I should care about a competency model?”

It’s a fair question and one that I hear quite often from other line managers who are often involved in approving a competency model and then participating in the training programs that typically come soon after either directly or indirectly by sending direct reports to the training sessions.

I was recently facilitating a Business leadership session that utilizes a powerful business simulation  when an interesting and impactful discussion began during the debriefing of one of the leadership scenarios of the simulation.  In the simulation, one of the main characters – Ellen Astor – is upset with a fellow teammate Theo for not taking more initiative on a project.  As a result of her frustration with Theo, Ellen decides to provide him with some rather aggressive feedback.  Theo’s response is that “nobody ever told me I was supposed to do that,” which of course made Ellen more upset.  The scenario is designed to prompt a rich discussion about the best practices of leadership and how to apply the learnings back to the real world.  As a result of the dynamic discussions, the participants were able to take key learnings back to their leadership roles.

As we all probably painfully aware, empathetic listening is a critical skill of success in any business environment.  Over the years, we all have been presented with hundreds of different frameworks and methodologies that teach business professionals to listen effectively and intently absorb the words others are saying. By absorbing what others are really saying, we can be more collaborative and effective. Some effective listening methodologies suggest repeating and rephrasing, some suggest “parroting” the words back to the other individual, and others suggest using 5-7 seconds of silence to make sure the other person knows you are listening effectively.  All these methods have their positives and negatives in my opinion.

The job of the HR business partner has never been more important than it is today.  And perhaps just as underappreciated at the same time. The corporate business world is extremely complex and uncertain, and most line managers have developed a critical dependence on their top HR partners to help them execute their business strategies.  In our ever-changing business world, good HR Business Partners are able to follow along and provide foundational levels of support, while world-class HR Business Partners are able to assess the business and provide deep insights and solutions that help the business achieve its goals and objectives.

Greetings from the ATD Conference and Exposition in Washington, DC.  This week the world of Talent Development is on the big stage and it’s clear that the $100 billion industry is thriving and growing at a record pace.  There are more than 10,000 attendees and more than 500 unique vendors positioning the value of their talent development solutions.