Allaying the Fear of Competency Measurement, Part Two

In my last post, we discussed the reasons why the term “competency assessment” strikes fear into the hearts of project managers, and began to lay out a five-step plan for overcoming these fears. Let’s continue:

STEP THREE:  Establish a Baseline. A competency assessment helps to tell us what you already know, so we don’t waste your time and our money. Competency assessment helps identify the strengths, opportunities and challenges that leads to targeted training solutions. Baselines also help to establish where you are and where you are going.

STEP FOUR:  Communicate – Communicate – Communicate. Treat your competency assessment and professional development program like any other project. Respect what your project managers know:  provide a Project Charter, Project Plan, Project Status Updates, Communication Plans, etc. Develop a comprehensive communication strategy around the competency assessment and professional development program.  They won’t fear what they know.

Engage the managerial team so they can help communicate and reinforce the “whys” around this project / competency assessment.

STEP FIVE: Reporting On the Competency Assessment Outcomes. Most important is: Do NOT gloss over the results ! Provide trending for the group.  Identify the areas for knowledge, skill and behavioral improvements. Identify the strengths first. Identify the commonalities and then identify the opportunities for growth. When reporting on the competency assessment outcomes, have your strategy in hand for the targeted training or process improvements for improving overall performance

Don’t use the word “fix” when you are talking about competencies or skills that you want to “build.”  “Fix” indicates something is broken.

Communicate your personal expectations and the organization’s expectations for improving project management performance. Most the stakeholders that I work with have a passion for good project management, and are proud of their profession. Project managers like to understand the sequence of events and where they are headed.  Treating a competency assessment as a project helps to remove the fear around assessment and moves it into an arena project managers can understand and appreciate.

For more information, see the PM College Resource Center for Project Manager Competency.

• Joni Brown-Irons, M.Ed., Managing Director
• Competency