The top four skills to evaluate

Companies are full of structures that attempt to identify, evaluate, and develop talent. They range from basic annual evaluations procedures to sophisticated ranking systems and everything in between. And, as diverse as these processes can be, the common attribute they all share is the ability to influence your organization’s culture. These processes shape the kind of company you are. They are bold statements that send direct messages about what works and doesn’t work, and more importantly, what behaviors are valued and which ones will yield success. Given the importance of such messages, organizations should be very cautious and thoughtful about how their evaluation processes are structured and executed. All too often, evaluations lack balance and have unintended consequences when they are not adequately aligned to measure the right behaviors. Your company’s evaluation process should focus on four key development skills - Technical Skills; Execution Ability; Business Skills; and Leadership Skills. Technical Skills: You can’t build a house without tools. An employee accumulates skill-sets with their work experiences that help effectively build a collective career. Development evaluation processes should objectively gauge the level of mastery in each skill-set required for them to excel in their role and industry. But rather than focusing on just their current position, these technical skills should be broadly focused on the employee’s entire career path. Mastery of the skills to do the job is the ticket into the game for any employee. Execution Ability: It’s not enough to know, you must do! It’s important for employees to be able to apply what they are learning and doing in a concrete and tangible way – and preferably in a way that has a direct influence on the company’s success. You must encourage and drive an employee mindset that it’s not enough to know how to do the task at hand, but to actually get it done. Follow-through is critical. Gone are the days of the philosophers, so make sure your people are executing on the knowledge they have. Build your evaluation processes to focus not on what was discussed, but rather what was accomplished. Business Skills: Think like a CEO. Employees must understand the context they work in and how their expertise fits into the larger business strategy in order to make effective decisions. They must be aware of all the dynamics that affect the business unit they are contributing to, and have an understanding of how their role supports the end goal of the organization. Encourage your employees to seek information beyond their role; learn about the industry market, your customers, and who your competitors are. No man is an island, and if you develop an employee’s ability to “think like the CEO,” they will become better decision makers. Give employees projects that require balancing multiple business challenges and coach them through them. Leadership skills: You don’t have to be in charge to be a leader. Not everyone has to be –nor should they all be – the bus driver. And yet, you should demand that everyone is given the tools and training to step up to the leadership plate if necessary. Let’s be clear -this doesn’t mean their current job requires them to lead constantly or that they are on a path to be a CEO, but employees should be expected to take charge when needed. Growing and exercising these skills will allow them to develop ideas, influence peers, develop other leaders, and drive change. Objective evaluation of leadership ability is integral for any evaluation process. Support your people in their pursuit of leadership knowledge and it will bring them to levels they didn’t think were possible. At the end of the day, those organizations with fully-realized evaluation processes will be in a better position to get the most out of their human capital investments.