Menschwert – wirkungsvolle Kompetenzentwicklung

Skills for a successful tomorrow

Competence is the basis for service delivery and quality. Without competence, any effort is counterproductive. Both for the individual and for the entire organization. Due to increasing complexity, it is no longer enough to have deep knowledge in just one area. In order for excellence and expertise to be put to optimal use, it is necessary to look beyond one's own nose. Not only applicable and up-to-date specialist knowledge is essential, but also the competencies to be able to connect this knowledge and one's own experience in a meaningful context with other functions. If this is missing, ineffective coordination rounds and long decision cycles are the results and the organization paralyzes itself.

The current crises are changing the form of collaboration and with it, every single role. Companies today need a holistic view of their competence management to remain competitive and innovative. This will make employees more capable of acting, more resilient and healthier. However, there is usually a lack of role clarity and understanding of expectations.

In addition, experience in a field has become a double-edged sword. Seniority no longer says anything about competence. Experience is valuable when aspects have been experienced and reflected upon in various contexts. However, someone who has been in the same job for 20 years has usually only experienced, reflected on, experimented with and derived various possible solutions from a limited number of perspectives and problems. Competence, therefore, means a multitude of skills and abilities, especially for experienced specialists and managers.

This leads to the following questions, among others:

What competencies are needed for tomorrow?
How can professional excellence and quality be achieved?
What is expected in each role?
What outcomes are valuable in the overall context?
What personal development is needed?

Comprehending the company

Knowing the rules of the game and learning to deal with them

First and foremost, it is important to comprehend the company – its values, culture, identity. Excellent project management skills fade into the background if there is no understanding of effective communication within the organization, taking into account that the organization is subject to constant change. Methodological knowledge is only helpful if it can be adapted to the respective context.

Structural changes in the company also demand new competencies, because each structure requires a different way of communicating and collaborating. Whether on the way to more agility, in the digital transformation, at management level or due to changed framework conditions.

It is necessary to learn how to deal with changes in the company and to constantly develop the competencies required for the respective situation.

Professional excellence

Tools of the trade need to be learned

By technical excellence, we mean the expertise, experience, and knowledge of theory, methods, and tools to be learned in a particular field, whether engineering, business, or service-oriented jobs.

A tough thesis: 80% of employees are not sufficiently qualified for their respective roles. They are unaware of what results are expected in a business context and what competencies they need to develop to achieve them, let alone what technical excellence means. These are strong words, but they are true. This is not because of inability or lack of will, but because there is a high focus on tasks. In addition, horizontal job changes often mean that only a short learning period is given before the person fully fills the role. However, it is unclear how the role has changed in the ever-changing circumstances, how it contributes to overarching goals, and how things could be better or how framing conditions have been developed.

Many companies lack a benchmark for excellence and quality in terms of contribution to the holistic success of the company and in comparison to what would be possible. Just because the KPIs are right and results are achieved does not mean that the employees are excellent. It is accepted that a minimum level is sufficient for the job to be considered accomplished because the connection of the tasks to the strategy has been lost.

Excellence is not related to the position. Whether in software development, clerking, or leadership, all can achieve technical excellence in their field. In addition to in-depth knowledge of the relevant subject matter, this also includes reflection and communication skills, the courage to express one’s own opinion, the will to apply more appropriate tools, and constant learning. Excellent employees gravitate toward their peers and thus help lift a team effortlessly out of mediocrity.

Adhesive competencies transform knowledge and experience into performance and impact

In addition to technical excellence, people need skills that enable them to combine their own quality with the skills of others.

We refer to the competencies as glue because they connect the different professional expertise with each other so that the company as a whole benefits from them. These are competencies that make working together worthwhile. Aspects such as the ability to work in a team and to deal with conflict, the ability to think abstractly and reflectively, emotional awareness and resilience as well as the ability to express oneself effectively, to navigate through complexity and to use imagination and creativity to improve one’s own activities continuously.

The interplay of all these components is necessary for the organization to position itself for future sustainability and health. These are the fuel on the way to breaking the sound barrier.

Self-leadership as a foundation for competence building

Personal development as a prerequisite for professional advancement

Competence is more than just theory and experience. The awareness of one’s motives, thought patterns and imprints determine the extent to which we apply learned knowledge and ensure the compatibility of our ideas.

Answers in dealing with one’s own limitations, inescapable facts and the adversities of everyday life and yet remaining able to speak and act are the basis of success. This includes keeping ourselves inspired and motivated. It is a fallacy that motivation from outside works permanently, whereas unfortunately, it is true that one can very well be demotivated by others.

We foster excellence in your organization

We are happy to work with you to develop a roadmap for realigning the competencies of your employees and managers. This succeeds among other things with:

Analysis of existing potential, skills and capacities
Analysis of existing competencies and beliefs
Elaboration of role profiles with alignment to goals and corporate culture
Training concept for communication, self-management and reflection and creativity techniques
Workshops to identify and dissolve unconscious belief patterns
Training in communication, conflict management and negotiation techniques

Let’s take the next steps together.

Competence development for and in the digital world of work

Research work in cooperation with the Muenchner Kreis (Munich Circle)

Together with the Münchner Kreis, we have specifically researched competencies in the digital world of work. The Munich Circle is an independent, interdisciplinary and international platform that promotes active and diverse discourse between competence leaders from business, science and politics. The resulting competency paper can be viewed here: Link to Münchner Kreis

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