A Road MAP to Management Competency

Knowing the true extent of your managers' abilities may the most effective key to growing your business and improving your profitability. It's the only sound way to design your training and match it to your corporate goals.

Learning the extent of your managers' competencies is another thing entirely. Often managers with the knowledge to perform their jobs don't have the skills to direct and motivate their staff to do the same. Usually you can spot this deficiency fairly quickly.

Or you're surely familiar with the other side of the coin ... the manager who gets along, moves along and goes nowhere. It could be months before this one shows up on your radar.

Now you can find a concise, efficient and cost-effective answer to this problem in the Managerial Assessment of Proficiency - MAP - approach to learning what you need to know to do your training right.

Developed by Dr. Scott Parry, founder of Training House, Inc., the MAP competency model is based upon his analysis of a series of major competency studies. He took the information collected by large U.S. corporations such as AT&T, Kodak, Martin Marietta, Ford and the American Management Association and selected 12 competencies common to every study. If you concentrate on only this mighty dozen you will have sound building blocks for managerial effectiveness in your organization.

Develop a Managerial Performance Benchmark

With MAP you have the scores of more than 75,000 managers in hundreds of successful corporations to use as your guidelines. This means you have an objectivity nearly impossible to get with other forms of assessment.

Your managers' mastery of the 12 fundamental competencies is assessed by means of video simulations. In addition, factors like managerial style, personal style and communication style are augmented through a paper and pencil instrument and added to the results.

Each participant will be scored and given a percentile ranking against others who have previously taken the same test. The MAP assessment is equally applicable to senior managers, middle managers, first level supervisors and professional/technical staff. Giving you a far ranging tool to build a comprehensive, relevant and effective training program from the benchmarks MAP establishes.

Twelve Competencies You Can Assess and Improve ... Step by Step

Competencies are defined as a group of related skills, knowledge and attitudes which correlate with success on the job and which can be improved through training.

Below are the 12 competencies you can assess and affect using MAP. In future issues we will elaborate on the skills involved in each competency and the steps MAP takes to give you a clear picture of how to identify and create plans to fill the gaps.

1. Time Management and Prioritizing
2. Setting Goals and Standards
3. Planning and Scheduling Work
4. Listening and Organizing
5. Giving Clear Information
6. Getting Unbiased Information
7. Training, Coaching and Delegating
8. Appraising People and Rewards
9. Disciplining and Counseling
10. Identifying and Solving Problems
11. Making Decisions, Weighing Risk
12. Thinking Clearly and Analytically

The MAP program includes assessment, interpretation of results and development planning. Quest is licensed to administer MAP within client organizations. And will be pleased to provide you full details on how this cost-effective assessment program can streamline and focus your own training design and implementation.

More about MAP