how adding factors, clusters, and stallers and …...interview process can provide you with strong...

67 CompetenCies, 19 Career stallers and stoppers, 7 Global FoCus areas, 26 Clusters and 8 FaCtorsThe addition of new content to the Interview Architect® Express now gives you access to structured interview content from any area of the Leadership Architect® Library. Specifically, you can assess candidates on any of the following:

• 67 Competencies

• 19 Career Stallers and Stoppers

• 7 Global Focus Areas

• 26 Clusters

• 8 Factors

That is a total of over 1,200 questions you can choose from!

A broader array of content presents you with more options to tailor and enhance the interviewing process. This guide provides you with tips for the appropriate and beneficial use of this content. Each of the different elements of the Leadership Architect® Library will be described along with when and how they are best applied in the interview process.

Competencies—What they are, what they tell you, how to use them

Competencies defined Competencies are defined as “a measurable characteristic of a person that is related to success at work. It may be a behavioral skill, a technical skill, an attribute (such as intelligence), or an attitude (such as optimism).” (The Leadership Machine, p. 5)

Beyond Competency-Based Structured Interviewing:

How adding Factors, clusters, and stallers and stoppers leads to better interviewing resultsby george s. Hallenbeck Jr., ph.d., co-author with robert w. eichinger of Interviewing Right: How Science Can Sharpen Your Interviewing Accuracy

Key Takeaways:

• Assessing competencies in structured interviews helps differentiate skill levels between candidates.

• Career Stallers and Stoppers aid in assessing a candidate’s shortcomings.

• Global Focus Areas help assess suitability for the rigors of a global assignment.

• Clusters are best used when you are trying to form initial perceptions about the candidate.

• Factors add the most value during an intake assessment for an executive coaching assignment.

a usage guide

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The Leadership Architect® Library contains a total of 67 specific competencies (highlighted below):

What competencies can tell you about a candidate The assessment of competencies as part of a structured behavioral interview process can provide you with strong insight into whether a candidate possesses the competencies identified as critical for success in a particular job or functional area.

The candidate’s responses to behavior-based questions and follow-up probes will indicate whether or not that candidate’s skill level in a competency falls above or below the requirements for the position in question.

A caveat on drawing conclusionsConclusions need to be limited to the scope of the specific competencies that are assessed. Just because a candidate demonstrates skill in one competency (e.g., Decision Quality) does not mean that the candidate demonstrates equal skill in a related competency (e.g., Problem Solving).

Also, the assessment of competencies will not inform you directly of other independent qualities of the candidate such as expertise in a specific functional/technical area or organization/culture fit.

Assessing competencies provides insight into whether a candidate has competencies identified as

critical for success.

Conclusions need to be limited to the scope of specific

competencies that are assessed.

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When to use competencies in the selection processCompetencies can be assessed at just about any point of the selection process. Generally, we recommend that a candidate be assessed on competencies once he or she has gotten past the initial stages of the selection process and has been identified as a truly viable candidate.

This would likely include a determination that the candidate possesses the appropriate educational background, work experience, and technical skills and represents a good fit with the organization’s culture. The assessment of competencies then serves to differentiate the top candidates from those who are merely qualified.

Combining competency and cluster level interviewingIn the case where you choose to use both competency and cluster level interviewing for the same candidate, we generally recommend that competencies are applied following a cluster level assessment. This allows for the opportunity to validate assessments made from the cluster level interviews. It also provides an opportunity to drill to a deeper level and probe for more specific information in particular skill areas.

Challenges in competency-based interviewingWhen interviewing at the competency level, the main challenge faced by interviewers is determining which competencies to include and which ones to leave out. Given the time constraints of the interview process, typically only 5-7 competencies can be evaluated in an hour-long interview.

Paring down the competency list Since up to one-third of the 67 competencies may be identified as mission-critical to performance in a given position, this presents the interviewer with some choices to make in order to pare the list down. One method to guide decision-making is to classify competencies into different categories based on their developmental difficulty and the number of individuals in the general population – the supply in the labor pool – who are skilled in the competency.

Competencies should be assessed once a candidate has gotten past the initial stages of the selection process.

When combining competency and cluster level interviewing, we recommend doing the cluster level assessment first.

Classifying competencies based on their developmental difficulty and supply in the labor pool helps pare down the competency list.

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Based on this differentiation, we can identify three primary categories of competencies:

•Price-of-AdmissionCompetencies: Competencies that are in high supply and are usually important in any job. They are readily found in candidates and are likely to be easier to develop.

•DifferentiatorCompetencies: These competencies are in shortest supply and hardest to develop. They differentiate candidates to a much greater degree because they make a real difference when someone has them.

•Competitive-EdgeCompetencies: Competencies that are in shorter supply and more difficult to develop, therefore providing a competitive edge to candidate possessing these skills.

Price-of-Admission Competencies—Best used in pre-screeningIt is important to establish that the candidate has the price-of-admission competencies for the position. However, if these are the competencies primarily used for selection, it would be difficult to differentiate one candidate from another due to the wide availability of the skills. Therefore, the price-of-admission competencies fit best as a preliminary screen during the initial stages of talent attraction.

Differentiator Competencies—In shortest supply and hardest to developIn contrast, the differentiator competencies are in shortest supply and are hardest to develop. They may be suitable for use at advanced stages of selection to differentiate candidates who have similar skills in competitive-edge competencies. Otherwise, plan to focus on these competencies for long-term talent development with successful candidates.

Competitive-Edge competencies—The focus of your selection effortsThat leaves us with the competitive-edge competencies. More often than not, these competencies will be the focus of your talent selection efforts.

The relative position of each of these competencies at each level, based on data from our Research and Interpretation Placemats, is displayed on the sample matrices found in the appendix to this document.

Price-of-admission competencies fit best in the preliminary

screening process.

Differentiator competencies are best used to differentiate

candidates at advanced stages of selection.

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Consider these categories as general rules of thumb in selecting competencies to interview for, not absolutes. The ultimate decision of which competencies to include depends on the specific nature of the job and your understanding of the requirements candidates need for success.

Career stallers and stoppers—What they are, what they tell you, how to use them

Career Stallers and Stoppers definedCareer Stallers and Stoppers are the negative characteristics or flame-out factors that can derail a person’s career. In many respects, they represent the flipside of competencies. The Leadership Architect® Library contains a total of 19 specific Career Stallers and Stoppers (highlighted below):

What Career Stallers and Stoppers can tell you about a candidate The assessment of Career Stallers and Stoppers provides insight into whether a candidate demonstrates behaviors that might cause difficulties with people and results on the job, potentially leading to derailment. Evidence of staller and stopper behaviors is not a sure sign of problems, but should definitely raise your attention and concern.

Career Stallers and Stoppers provide insights into whether a candidate demonstrates behaviors that might cause difficulty with people or results on the job.

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When to use Career Stallers and Stoppers in the selection processConditions that call for the assessment of Career Stallers and Stoppers include:

•Negative behaviors demonstrated by the candidate at earlier stages of the selection process that raise concern and need to be validated and better understood,

•A history of problem behaviors by previous incumbents of the role that raise others’ sensitivity and awareness (e.g., the previous VP of Marketing was Defensive (108) and Insensitive to Others (112)), or

•A high degree of potential harmfulness associated with a particular staller and stopper (e.g., having a CFO with a Lack of Ethics and Values (109) could be potentially disastrous for an organization).

Caveats for using Career Stallers and StoppersIdeally, Career Stallers and Stoppers are an important consideration in assessing a candidate’s potential shortcomings and risks and determining overall fit with the role and the organization. They should not be assessed for the purpose of looking for “red flags” or delivering a “knock out” punch to a candidate.

In some cases, evidence for a staller and stopper behavior might be established during the interview process and a plan might be put in place to properly mitigate it and address it developmentally once the person is on the job.

Global Focus areas—What they are, what they tell you, how to use them

Global Focus Areas definedThe Global Focus Areas are the additional characteristics required for global business leaders. The Leadership Architect® Library contains a total of 7 Global Focus Areas (highlighted on next page):

...evidence for a staller and stopper behavior might

be established during the interview process

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What Global Focus Areas can tell you about a candidateThe Global Focus Areas are especially valuable if you are assessing a candidate who will be relocating to a different country or working in a role with a high-demand for partnering with customers and colleagues from around the globe.

Each Global Focus Area hones in on a particular skill set essential for conducting business globally. The assessment of these areas will help you determine the candidate’s suitability for the rigors of a global assignment. However, it is also important to assess that the candidate possesses some of the competencies and/or clusters that are critical to performance, regardless of whether or not the job has a global scope.

When to use Global Focus Areas in the selection processGlobal Focus Areas are versatile and can be used at just about any point in the selection process and pair well with the evaluation of either competencies or clusters.

Caveats for using Global Focus Areas Many of the Global Focus Areas are globally-themed derivatives of some of the 67 competencies. For example, 161. Global Business Knowledge is in many respects the global equivalent of 5. Business Acumen. As a result, avoid assessing the candidate on competencies and Global Focus Areas that may have considerable behavioral overlap.

Assessing candidates in Global Focus Areas helps determine suitability for global assignments.

Avoid assessing the candidate on competencies and Global Focus Areas that may have considerable behavioral overlap.

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Clusters—What they are, what they tell you, how to use them

Clusters definedClusters are statistically-supported groupings of related competencies. The Leadership Architect® Library contains a total of 21 competency clusters and 5 career staller and stopper clusters (highlighted below):

What clusters can tell you about a candidate Clusters shift the focus to one level up from competencies. Therefore, they provide an assessment of broader, but still closely related, groupings of behavior. Using clusters, for instance, can give you a good read on how effective a candidate is at dealing with difficult situations (Cluster H – Dealing with Trouble) or being an inspirational leader (Cluster Q – Inspiring Others). What you will likely be missing is some of the finer detail with regard to things such as how effectively the individual can address poor performance (13. Confronting Direct Reports) or deliver a compelling vision (65. Managing Vision & Purpose).

When to use clusters in the selection process Like competencies, clusters can be used effectively at just about any point in the selection process. They tend to function ideally closer to the beginning of the process, at the point where you are still trying to form some initial perceptions of the candidate. Because you can potentially cover a fairly broad spectrum of behaviors by assessing 5-7 clusters,

Clusters provide an assessment of broader, but still closely related,

groupings of behavior.

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you can start to create a good behavioral sketch of the candidate’s strengths and developmental needs. Follow-up interviews aimed at assessing a carefully targeted group of competencies add depth to your initial assessment and provide a more complete picture of the candidate.

Caveats for using Clusters Because there are far fewer clusters than competencies, you generally do not face the same challenges with trying to pare down the number of clusters you want to assess during the interview process. Also, the categories of price-of-admission, competitive-edge and differentiator tend to blur because the majority of clusters contain competencies from multiple categories. One exception is Cluster J – Focusing on the Bottom Line, where all three competencies are price-of-admission.

Factors—What they are, what they tell you, how to use them

Factors defined Factors are the highest-order grouping of related competencies and are created by applying factor analytic statistical methods. The Leadership Architect® Library contains a total of 6 competency factors and 2 career staller and stopper factors (highlighted below):

Clusters can add depth to an initial assessment and provide a more complete picture of the candidate.

Factors are the highest-order grouping of related competencies.

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What factors can tell you about a candidateBecause factors are at such a high level in the overall structure of the Leadership Architect® Library, they tend to provide very broad generalizations about the candidate and not much in the way of specifics.

When to use factors in the selection process We believe factor-level interviewing adds value during an intake assessment for an executive coaching assignment. Assessing the coachee on all eight factors can be done within the scope of a 90-minute coaching session and allow the coach to get a rough understanding of how the candidate acts across different areas of behavior and inform the diagnosis of initial areas that need to be addressed. These perceptions can then be refined during subsequent sessions with the candidate.

Caveats for using factors In general, we caution against using factors during the interviewing process because they simply don’t provide sufficient information upon which to base an employment decision. The exception would be Factor IV: Energy and Drive, which is synonymous with Cluster J – Focusing on the Bottom Line.

multi-level, multi-category interviewing A broad array of interview content allows you to combine content in powerful ways and to pull interview content from different levels of the Leadership Architect® Library. For example, a candidate may be assessed at both the cluster and competency levels.

Another possibility is to sample from different behavioral categories. For example, a candidate can be assessed on competencies, career stallers and stoppers, and global focus areas. A blend of multi-level, multi-category interviewing is yet another possibility.

No hard and fast rules exist to govern what combinations of content you may choose to include as part of your interviewing process – use a balance of creativity and common sense as your primary guide.

Factor-level interviewing can add value during an intake assessment

for an executive coaching assignment.

No hard and fast rules exist to govern the combinations of

interviewing content.

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Sample Competency Matrices from the Interview Architect® Learning & Application Guide© Copyright 2006. Lominger International: A Korn/Ferry Company. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. item 41031 Rev 10/06

competency Matrix – Generic Description

Skill rating of Average Population

High Medium Low

Dev

elo

pm

enta

l Dif

ficu

lty

har

des

th

ard

erM

od

erat

eea

sier

easi

est

DIFFerentIAtOr cOMPetencIeS

competencies that are the hardest to develop

and people are generally not very good at.

Should be used selectively for interviewing.

Otherwise, focus on long-term development in

successful candidates.

cOMPetItIve-eDGe cOMPetencIeS

competencies that are harder to develop and/or fewer people are good at,

but help identify superior performers. Because higher levels of these

competencies lead to higher performance, select for if possible, but

otherwise develop for these.

PrIce-OF-ADMISSIOn cOMPetencIeS

things that most people are good at and are

easiest to learn.

Use for initial stages of talent attraction and

selection to ensure that candidates meet basic

requirements.

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© Copyright 2006. Lominger International: A Korn/Ferry Company. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. item 41031 Rev 10/06

competency Matrix – Individual contributor Level


High Medium Low

Dev

elo

pm

enta

l Dif

ficu

lty

har

des

t

28 Innovation Management 12 Conflict Management

34 Managerial Courage

45 Personal Learning

48 Political Savvy

64 Understanding Others

har

der

10 Compassion

21 Managing Diversity

66 Work/Life Balance

11 Composure

31 Interpersonal Savvy

37 Negotiating

38 Organizational Agility

56 Sizing Up People

2 Dealing with Ambiguity

13 Confronting Direct Reports

19 Developing Direct Reports and Others

40 Dealing with Paradox

44 Personal Disclosure

58 Strategic Agility

59 Managing Through Systems

60 Building Effective Teams

Mo

der

ate

3 Approachability

4 Boss Relationships

8 Comfort Around Higher Management

22 Ethics and Values

26 Humor

32 Learning on the Fly

51 Problem Solving

57 Standing Alone

5 Business Acumen

6 Career Ambition

7 Caring About Direct Reports

14 Creativity

41 Patience

49 Presentation Skills

52 Process Management

54 Self-Development

9 Command Skills

25 Hiring and Staffing

36 Motivating Others

46 Perspective

55 Self-Knowledge

65 Managing Vision and Purpose

easi

er

17 Decision Quality

23 Fairness to Direct Reports

29 Integrity and Trust

30 Intellectual Horsepower

53 Drive for Results

61 Technical Learning

63 Total Work Systems

67 Written Communications

20 Directing Others

33 Listening

39 Organizing

42 Peer Relationships

50 Priority Setting

62 Time Management

18 Delegation

35 Managing and Measuring Work

easi

est

1 Action Oriented

15 Customer Focus

24 Functional/Technical Skills

43 Perseverance

16 Timely Decision Making

27 Informing

47 Planning

MOStLY DeveLOP

MOStLY SeLect

MOStLY Screen

19


competency Matrix – Manager Level


High Medium Low

Dev

elo

pm

enta

l Dif

ficu

lty

har

des

t

34 Managerial Courage 12 Conflict Management

28 Innovation Management


48 Political Savvy


har

der

10 Compassion



11 Composure


56 Sizing Up People






37 Negotiating





Mo

der

ate

3 Approachability


5 Business Acumen



26 Humor

51 Problem Solving

57 Standing Alone

6 Career Ambition


9 Command Skills




54 Self-Development

14 Creativity



41 Patience

46 Perspective

55 Self-Knowledge


easi

er

17 Decision Quality







18 Delegation

33 Listening

39 Organizing


50 Priority Setting

62 Time Management



20 Directing Others

easi

est

1 Action Oriented

15 Customer Focus


43 Perseverance

16 Timely Decision Making

47 Planning

27 Informing

MOStLY DeveLOP

MOStLY SeLect

MOStLY Screen

20


competency Matrix – executive Level


High Medium Low

Dev

elo

pm

enta

l Dif

ficu

lty

har

des

t

34 Managerial Courage

48 Political Savvy

12 Conflict Management

28 Innovation Management



har

der



10 Compassion

11 Composure


37 Negotiating

56 Sizing Up People










Mo

der

ate

3 Approachability


5 Business Acumen

6 Career Ambition


9 Command Skills




51 Problem Solving

57 Standing Alone


26 Humor

46 Perspective


54 Self-Development


14 Creativity


41 Patience

55 Self-Knowledge


easi

er

17 Decision Quality





18 Delegation


39 Organizing


50 Priority Setting

62 Time Management




20 Directing Others

33 Listening

easi

est

1 Action Oriented

15 Customer Focus


43 Perseverance

16 Timely Decision Making 27 Informing

47 Planning

MOStLY DeveLOP

MOStLY SeLect

MOStLY Screen

21

appendix a

12

GeorgeHallenbeck,Ph.D.isDirector,IntellectualPropertyDevelopmentwithLomingerInternational,AKorn/FerryCompany.

about Korn/Ferry internationalKorn/FerryInternational,withmorethan90officesin39countries,isapremierglobalprovideroftalentmanagementsolutions.BasedinLosAngeles,thefirmdeliversanarrayofsolutionsthathelpclientstoidentify,deploy,develop,retainandrewardtheirtalent.

FormoreinformationontheKorn/FerryInternationalfamilyofcompanies,visitwww.kornferry.com.

©Copyright2008TheKorn/FerryInstitute

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