Posted by In the following weeks, we want to present some examples of the competencies we measure in the competency measurement tools that you can check out on our website. Users of the tools and readers of the blog ask us how we do the measurement, what we take into account when measuring and how we created the indicators.
Let’s take one of the competencies used in the competency profiles of our researcher competency measurement tools as an example. It will be assertiveness.
First, let’s ask ourselves what assertiveness is. Thus, a person’s assertiveness is seen as the gentle, sincere and firm communication of one’s desires and aspirations. An assertive person knows what he wants and is able to announce it to others. Such behavior is a great way of not giving in to persuasions and requests that we do not want at all or could not fulfill. Assertive behavior is not just an outward manifestation of our strong will or high sense of self, but is also a display of positive feelings to others.
That is why we defined assertiveness in our competency profiles as follows:
Assertiveness is the expression of one’s own opinion, feelings, attitudes and beliefs in an open manner that does not violate the rights of others or the interests of the organization.
However, it is not yet clear from such a sentence how we can determine whether someone is or is not assertive, and in particular to what extent they are assertive in various situations. Often, an assertive attitude must be maintained long before a situation occurs that we do not want. If we are about to undertake a task that we are not convinced about, it is worth considering even then whether we really want it. An assertive message should be consistent verbally and non-verbally. When you need to announce your dissatisfaction with a colleague’s or employee’s lateness for an appointment, you should adjust both your tone of voice, facial expression and the content of your speech.
Therefore, in order to sort out the situations in which we can demonstrate assertiveness, we used the following indicators in measuring this competence:
- Defending one’s own opinion / interests while being open to the perspective of others (e.g., the publisher)
- Seeking agreement
- Tactful expression, based on respect (without a sense of superiority)
- The courage to speak out
- Awareness of one’s own value / potential
We assess each of these indicators with a 5-degree behavioral scale. For example, we rate the indicator “Defending one’s own opinion” with the scale:
- He is unable to defend his own opinion / interests or does so quite aggressive.
- In some situations, he may have difficulty assertively defending his own opinion / interests.
- When justified, he assertively defends his own opinion / interests.
- Even in emotionally difficult cases, assertively defends own opinion / interests while remaining open to others’ perspectives.
- Creates an organizational culture that fosters assertive attitudes among (co-workers).
How this works in practice, check and measure your competencies with the tools available here: