Competencies
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Review these key competencies and the specific courses to help you build your skills
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It's always helpful to be clear about what's expected of you. Competencies are the skills, knowledge and behaviors required to accomplish your goals.
We recommend each employee be evaluated on three to five competencies each year. You may continue to work on the same competencies from year-to-year or work on different ones each year. Either way, selecting behavioral competencies requires that you and your manager are clear on the definitions, as well as what specific expectations exist for how you model your competencies in your work.
You and your manager should discuss these competencies during all three phases of Grow and Perform at Stanford process: Goal Setting, Check-Ins, and Annual Review.
Our Core Competencies
Accountability
- Delivers on commitments to achieve goals with the highest level of ethics and integrity
- Takes ownership of results - good or bad
- Holds others accountable for achieving results
Composure
- Remains calm under pressure
- Does not become defensive or irritated when times are tough
- Can manage difficult, tense situations while maintaining credibility
- Does not show frustration when challenged, confronted or in the face of resistance
Courage
- Productively confronts difficult issues, making valiant choices and taking bold actions in the face of opposition
- Takes a stand
- Challenges popular values, opinions and decisions to ensure that actions taken are in the university and/or unit’s best interests
- Diplomatically says what needs to be said even in the face of pressure or conflict
- Takes critical action to achieve breakthrough results or changes despite the uncertainty or challenge
- Confronts difficult problems early
Develops Self & Others
- Demonstrates awareness of own strengths development needs and shows commitment to self-growth
- Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creating and taking advantage of learning opportunities, pursuing development experiences to improve interpersonal and business impact
- Creates a work environment where people want to do their best
- Supports and encourages others to develop their knowledge, skills and behaviors for the wider benefit of the organization
- Is aware of team members’ career goals and creates compelling development plans and executes them
- Provides feedback, instruction and development guidance helping others to excel in current or future job responsibilities
Diversity & Inclusion
- Works effectively with a wide range of people; sets a culture that leverages differences and supports diversity
- Is respectful of people and their different values; encourages and values diverse points of view and differing opinions
- Recruits high-quality diverse staff
Positive Work Environment
- Contributes to a positive work environment where all team members are treated with dignity and respect; a safe environment that allows team members to be creative, productive, valued and appreciated to foster positive relationships
- Shares in an atmosphere of open communication, collaboration, making mistakes, expressing concerns, and positioning problems as opportunities to learn together
Empathy and Compassion
- Empathizes with team members to help foster engagement, collaboration and team member connections
- Genuinely cares about people; is concerned about their work and non-work problems; is available and ready to help
- Sympathetic to the plight of others not as fortunate
Positivity and Resilience
- Demonstrates a growth mindset - believing that individuals can learn, change and improve
- Integrates new information and tries new things
- Handles change well and open to new ideas
- Recovers from failures and sees new opportunities for improvement
- Maintains a positive attitude through difficult times
University Citizenship
- Understands the university’s vision, mission and operations
- Maneuvers through our complexity
- Connects team members work to the university’s mission
- Considers the university’s needs and priorities when making decisions and makes the necessary trade-offs on behalf of the university
Additional Competencies
Your school or business unit may have selected several standard behavioral competencies out of this list, and your manager may select additional competencies for you to also be evaluated on.
Adaptability
- Approaches change with a growth mindset and finds productive ways to adjust to new circumstances
- Maintains effectiveness when experiencing change in work responsibilities or environment
- Adjusts effectively to change: explores the benefits, tries new approaches, and collaborates with others to make the change successful
- Encourages change when appropriate and helps others through their adaptive process
- Is comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity
- Looks forward to new opportunities, viewing them as creative challenges
Business Acumen
- Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of basic business principles
- Demonstrates sound judgment when making decisions
- Sees the impact a decision will have on the financial health of the team, school/unit and/or the university
- Utilizes resources in a productive way
- Understands the big picture and systemic interdependencies
Collaboration
- Engages cooperatively with others towards a common goal
- Treats others with respect, courtesy and professionalism
- Is approachable and willing to help others as needed
- Shares and seeks information in a collaborative way
- Builds networks and strategic relationships
- Forges synergies
- Approaches conflict by seeking solutions advantageous to all parties
- Contributes positively to the success of others and team
- Is effective at getting things done through formal and informal channels
- Collaborates across schools and units to achieve university objectives
Communication
- Presents information in a thoughtful and compelling manner; is clear and concise in verbal and written communications
- Speaks openly and honestly while fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect
- Plays an active role in discussions, asks clarifying questions, validates the other’s perspective and establishes mutual understanding of goals and expectations
- Is a receptive listener who consults and seeks input from others and is able to communicate effectively to diverse audiences; recognizes differences in communication styles and adjusts their own approach based on the audience
- Is influential and persuasive when appropriate; leverages communication technology, utilizes appropriate communication platforms to engage and achieve objectives
Creativity and Innovation
- Originates new ideas, demonstrates imagination and understands the risks associated with new approaches
- Is good at figuring out best ways to get things done
- Is innovative in applying ideas to meet new challenges
- Fosters a culture that encourages risk taking
- Demonstrates creative thinking and originality
- Embraces new opportunities and challenges with curiosity
Culture of Safety
- Demonstrates commitment to managing the health, safety, and well-being of their team
- Promotes and integrates safe considerations, policies and/or practices into work planning and execution
- Provides timely feedback to acknowledge safe behaviors or decisions and correct unsafe ones
- Encourages employees to report safety concerns and incidents, and takes prompt actions to resolve them
- Works to increase own and team’s safety knowledge
Customer Focus
- Ensures the customer (internal or external) is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual responsibilities
- Crafts and implements service practices that meet customers' and own organization's needs
- Promotes and operationalizes customer service as a value
Data Fluency
- Demonstrates the ability to understand, analyze and reason with data applicable to the role
- Seeks new and existing data, finds meaning in the numbers, asks the right questions and successfully turns data into actionable insights
- Creates value from the data and enables a culture of data-driven decision making
- Turns data analysis into a compelling story to communicate
Decision Making
- Makes sound decisions based on data analysis, critical thinking, experience and good judgement
- Is decisive and takes action; seeks input with curiosity and looks for innovative answers
- Sees underlying problems and patterns
- Applies prior experiences and lessons learned to new situations
- Knows when to refer to or consult with supervisor; recognizes trade-offs and is able to negotiate and find a balance between constituents
- Tactfully challenges popular opinions and beliefs and is willing to take bold actions in the face of opposition or uncertainty
- Is sought out by others for advice and solutions
Drives Results with Quality and Excellence
- Consistently completes assignments and achieves goals
- Delivers high-quality output; is committed to excellence and demonstrates personal accountability
- Looks for ways to continuously improve efficiency and quality of output; seeks feedback and applies lessons learned
- Sets stretch goals and creates a plan of action to achieve results
- Ensures projects are completed accurately, on time and within budget
- Demonstrates initiative and proactively anticipates obstacles
- Is resourceful and takes appropriate action to overcome barriers
- Effectively leads others as appropriate to achieve team goals
Emotional Intelligence
- Works to become self-aware
- Regulates own emotions and adjusts behaviors
- Seeks feedback and constructive criticism
- Effectively reads emotions in others and adjusts responses appropriately, demonstrating patience and empathy
- Learns from experiences and mistakes
- Provides constructive feedback and critique to direct reports and peers
Inspires Trust
- Establishes trusting relationships with others
- Is consistent between words and actions
- Gains the confidence and trust of others through honesty, authenticity, and acceptance of responsibility
- Follows through on commitments
- Takes personal responsibility for decisions and actions; works to repair eroded trust in relationships
Job Knowledge
- Demonstrates full grasp of the knowledge that is needed to carry out the job accurately and effectively
- Understands the mission and goals of the unit and how the job contributes to the success of the department and the university
- Works to increase proficiency in role
- Takes initiative to ensure skills are current and keeps up with trends in areas of expertise
Leading Change
- Drives organizational and cultural change needed to achieve the university's mission and it's strategic objectives
- Introduces new ways of thinking and approaching challenges
- Influences others's thinking in pursuit of transforming the culture, systems or products/services
- Helps others evolve and overcome resistance to change
Leading Teams
- Develops and articulates a clear vision for the team and inspires them to achieve it
- Builds a sense of affiliation and common purpose
- Fosters an inclusive workplace
- Gets to know team members and is genuinely interested in their success
- Is fair and congruent
- Attracts and selects strong talent
- Drives commitment and accountability, provides guidance, coaching and feedback
- Enables the achievement of results by removing obstacles and securing adequate processes and resources
- Ensures the effective resolution of workplace concerns
- Delegates appropriately
- Shares information and communicates frequently and effectively
- Builds capability in the team; develops people providing them with meaningful growth opportunities
- Recognizes and rewards staff contributions appropriately
- Seeks feedback to adjust own behaviors
Plan and Organize
- Establishes an action plan for self and others to complete work efficiently and on time by setting priorities, establishing timelines, and leveraging resources
- Adjusts plans as needed based on changing needs of the organization
Problem Solving
- Effectively defines and analyzes problems
- Researches multiple solutions; is resourceful when faced with new challenges
- Demonstrates tenacity in solving problems
- Approaches problems creatively
- Effectively uses data insights to find solutions and solve problems
- Manages conflict by openly discussing and proposing solutions that the involved parties can support.
Time Management
- Efficiently uses time allocated to a project or task
- Effectively prioritizes tasks and diligently organizes the work to achieve results
- Meets deadlines
- Uses good judgment in scheduling time away from work
- Is organized and makes plans
- Delegates work to others as needed
Vision and Strategy
- Appreciates the significance of having a vision and strategy
- Understands the big picture and the contribution of own role to the overall strategy
- Understands the interdependencies in the system in which the unit operates
- Is committed to making a difference
- Engages in the execution of the strategy and plays an active role in the achievement of the vision
- As appropriate, builds a vision for the unit and establishes the strategy to get there
- Communicates the vision and strategy in a way that inspires people to embrace it
- Creates influence strategies that gain commitment from key stakeholders