What is a leadership competency framework

A leadership competency framework is a structured guide outlining the skills, behaviors, and abilities required for effective leadership in an organization. It serves as a benchmark for assessing and developing leaders, ensuring they align with the organization's goals and culture.

This framework may include competencies like emotional intelligence, decisiveness, and strategic thinking. These competencies are unique to a business and used as the baseline for:

• ‍Succession planning
• ‍Targeted leadership development
• Evaluating leadership potential and effectiveness

A leadership competency framework builds on core or role-specific competency models and can be applied to everybody with leadership responsibilities.

For example, a competency model for a content marketing role includes the following competencies:

• Six core competencies: Communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, creativity, integrity
• Four technical and functional competencies: Content strategy development, SEO knowledge, content creation, data analysis

For leadership roles, the following leadership competencies apply, complementing the model:

• Strategic thinking
• People management

What are the key components of a leadership competency framework?

The key components of a leadership competency framework are:

• Leadership competencies: Fundamental skills and behaviors required for all leaders, such as communication, decision-making, and emotional intelligence
• Role-specific competencies: Skills and behaviors specific to particular leadership roles or levels within the organization (e.g., branding for a marketing department, closing for a sales department)
• Behavioral indicators: Observable actions or behaviors that demonstrate the presence of a particular competency
• Proficiency levels: Different levels of competency proficiency, ranging from basic to expert, to assess and develop leaders at various stages of their careers

Learn more about the various types of competency frameworks and who is responsible for creating them. 

How can a leadership competency framework be customized for different industries?

Companies can customize their leadership competency framework to match their industries by tailoring the core and role-specific competencies to reflect each sector's unique demands and challenges.

For example, competencies for leaders in the healthcare industry may emphasize patient care, regulatory compliance, and crisis management. Alternatively, those in the technology sector may focus on innovation, agility, and technical expertise.

Customizing the framework ensures it is relevant and effective for the specific context of a company’s industry.

Additional resources:

• Competency framework template with core, functional, and technical competencies
• Leadership competency framework template with leadership-specific competencies
• Competency mapping template to map competencies to organizational roles

Why is a leadership competency framework important for organizations?

A leadership competency framework is crucial because it helps organizations identify the key competencies required for leadership roles. This ensures leaders can effectively guide their teams and achieve strategic objectives.

Set clear performance expectations for leaders

A leadership competency model helps an organization define the behaviors and skills necessary for its leaders to perform according to the desired performance standards. It provides a clear roadmap of role-level expectations, allowing leaders to align their actions and decisions with organizational goals.

Additional resource: How to Create a Comprehensive Competency Model From Scratch

Assess leadership performance fairly and effectively

Leadership performance can be challenging to measure due to various factors such as innate abilities, motivations, life experiences, and competencies. A competency model offers an objective structure with clear developmental milestones, making it easier to assess and improve leadership performance consistently across the organization.

Additional resources:

• How to Implement an Effective Competency-Based Performance Appraisal in Your Organization
• Competency-Based Performance Review Template

Improve team performance

By defining the competencies required for leadership roles, a leadership competency framework ensures leaders have the skills to motivate and guide their teams effectively. This clarity helps in:

• Setting expectations
• Providing targeted development opportunities
• Fostering a culture of continuous improvement, which ultimately enhances team performance

Support targeted leadership training and development

A well-documented competency model helps identify skill gaps, allowing HR and L&D professionals to prioritize training programs for existing leaders. It also helps leaders recognize their strengths and areas for improvement, enabling them to take customized development courses that enhance their leadership capabilities.

Additional resources:

• 9 Box Grid Template
• 70-20-10 Development Plan Template

Enable strategic succession planning

Succession planning often fails due to a lack of clearly defined job descriptions and competencies. A leadership competency model provides a clear picture of the skills and experience required for different leadership levels, helping organizations identify potential successors. 

Additionally, it enables targeted development programs to address competency gaps and ensures a pipeline of capable leaders who can step into critical roles as needed, maintaining organizational continuity and stability.

Assist leadership recruiting

Recruiters can use the competency framework to identify candidates with the right skills and experience for leadership roles. For example, if "promoting innovation and organizational learning" is a core leadership competency, recruiters can filter candidates who have demonstrated these abilities in previous positions.

Free resources: Explore our gallery of job description templates. Discover templates for roles such as Technical Product Manager, CFO, and CEO.

Enable effective leadership with Deel Engage

Deel Engage is your all-in-one people development suite for leaders and workers across your organization:

• Competency-based career progression frameworks: Set role expectations and share transparent information on career progression in your organization
• Competency-based performance assessments: Evaluate your team member’s performance on a competency level to identify skill gaps and growth opportunities
• Competency-based training: Leverage Deel Engage’s hundreds of learning resources so your workers will find training materials for their roles and needs to add to their development plan
• AI assistant: Fast track competency framework and learning resource creation with AI

Talk to our experts about creating a custom leadership competency model for your organization.