Unlike the daring pilots of Tom Wolfe’s bestseller, who rocketed the United States into first place in the space-race, finding “The Right Stuff” in your managers here on terra firma is less clear-cut.

You know your people have talent, but is your current competency model geared up to make the most of it? The answer in many cases we have seen across business, is no. Competency modelling can work, but is often so unrealistic in the goals it sets as to leave you searching for the unattainable: super humans with otherworldly powers. And that leaves us firmly back in the realms of outer space again. So if Wolfe can identify clear-cut competencies, why are we so often left assessing “The Wrong Stuff” in our managers?

When executives make competency lists, “it's not uncommon to end up with anywhere from 50 to 150 items. The irony is that although each top performer only does one or two things well, everyone is expected to perform all 50 items excellently.”(1) Do you recognize this scenario? Searching for the best of everything in your people can often be counter-productive – after all, it could be the few things a manager is doing really well that ultimately makes them so outstanding. Trying to force people to meet unachievable performance goals is not the point; best realizing their core skills and nurturing them is. To do otherwise actually holds your people back......

Read the full article here "Do your managers have the right stuff for leadership" pdf - 82kb

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