Career Competencies

1. Achievement

To achieve goals, overcome obstacles and at the same time meeting standards. Achievement is not ambition as one can be ambitious and not achieving.

• Attributes:

• Wanting to do a good job
• Not set back by obstacles
• Learning and improving from encountering difficulties and obstacles
• Recover from failures

• Counter points:

• Stops at first obstacle
• Excuses or blame others for incomplete job or poor performance
• Exaggerating one’s own input
• Achievement unrelated or badly related to team perspective

2. Analytical thinking

Ability to organise and analyse information to identify cause and effect and find solution for pro blems.

• Attributes:

• Ability to break down a situation or task
• Identify correlations and cause and effect
• Generate alternative solutions

• Counter points:

• Take action without considering the full range of outcomes
• Fail to breakdown problem
• Bogged down by detail

3. Service Orientation

Giving priority to customers and values the relationships with them. Seeing the benefits of the company or institution and those of the customers are mutual

• Attributes:

• Respects all customers
• Solving customer problems
• Researching and understanding customer needs

• Counter points:

• Not respecting customers
• Belittling their needs or complaints
• Assumes all customers are the same

4. Entrepreneurship

Tendency to create novel and significant solutions to problems and tasks, identify important trends or patters, and to think ahead of time.

• Attributes:

• Improvement based on adaptation to current situations
• Anticipating future trend and make appropriate adaptations even at significant costs
• Willingness to take calculated risks

• Counter points:

• Sticking to familiar well-proven ways
• Failure to act upon new trends
• Too internally focused

5. Adaptiveness

Adapting to the changing circumstances of the work environment and openness to new ideas and demands for change.

• Attributes:

• Willingness to change and act  in face of information or indicating evidence
• Applies change procedures with flexibility and remains focused in the face of competing demands

• Counter points:

• Not open to new ideas or arrangements
• Dismissive of evidence that indicates the need of change
• Over embracing the status quo

6. Accountability Approach

Readiness to hold individuals accountable for blunders and mistakes. Willingness to take action to curtail inappropriate behaviour or to encourage behaviour meeting performance standards.

• Attributes:

• Make clear one’s expectation on others
• Accepts accountability for own actions
• Does not bully or use authoritarian approach
• Not tolerant of inappropriate behaviour

• Counter points:

• Fail set clear limits of acceptable behaviour
• Unwillingness to address poor performance
• Shout at staff or shaming them in public
• Failure to enforce deadlines

7. Social Competence

Sensitive to the needs of people of different cultures, personal orientation, sex, and socio-economic status.

• Attributes:

• Open to ways of understanding and appreciating people
• Respect other people’s beliefs and customs
• Show interest in their way of life
• Recognise one’s social biases and behaviours

• Counter points:

• Holds a restrictive view about people of varying social or ethnic backgrounds
• Has no interest in other traditions or ways of life
• Stereotypes and makes false assumptions about people

8. Professional Confidence

Recognising one’s ability to do a job well and the readiness to take on challenges.

• Attributes:

• Self reliant with having to seek advise or direction at all times
• The courage to refuse requests that violate profession ethics or knowledge
• Capable of generating professional opinions
• Ability to make decision without deferring unnecessarily to others
• Courage to admit it when they do not know something

• Counter points:

• Showing arrogance
• Over protective of one’s own professional interests
• Use professional knowledge for self interest
• Inability to admit ignorance

9. Self Awareness

Upstanding and control of one’s feelings, emotions, thoughts and events that trigger them.

• Attributes:

• Knows one’s own strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
• Being open about one’s values and preferences
• Ability to handle one’s emotions in appropriate ways
• Not being too defensive about one’s actions and accepts feedbacks from others

• Counter points:

• Loses temper and direct it against others
• Does not question own feelings
• Being defensive and always blaming others for problems
• Harass others to get one’s way

10. Team Orientation

The ability and the social skills required to work co-operatively in a network and or hierarchical environment.

• Attributes:

• Being co-operative
• Can set up clear roles and responsibilities and develop a sense of collective responsibility
• Not taking up a blaming or controlling stance
• A general helpful to others orientation
• Communicative
• Speak positively others and learn from others
• Capitalises on the diversity of ideas and skills in a team

• Counter points:

• Seeing one getting an unfair portion of work
• Seeing one better than other team mates
• Failure to reciprocate
• Selectively co-operate to further one’s interests
• Uncontrolled back talking about team mates