If you’re looking for practical, actionable guidance on how to create a competency framework, you’re already ahead of most organisations. A well-designed competency framework is one of the most powerful tools for shaping culture, improving performance, and elevating leadership capability. But too often frameworks fail, not because the concept is flawed, but because the framework itself does not reflect the cultural nuances, behaviours, and expectations of the organisation it’s built for.
When done right, a competency framework is more than a system: it guides hiring, development, performance reviews, leadership pathways, and organisational culture. If done poorly, it becomes a generic checklist that employees ignore.
1. Start With Culture: Build a Culturally Appropriate Competency Framework
The most critical rule in learning how to create a competency framework is this: do not copy and paste a template from somewhere else. Competency frameworks only work when they reflect the values, behaviours, and capabilities that genuinely matter inside your organisation.
Step 1: Define the cultural anchors
Begin by identifying the cultural commitments your organisation wants to reinforce. Examples may include:
- A coaching culture
- A customer-centric mindset
- Innovation
- Commercial discipline
- Accountability and ownership
These cultural elements become the “why” behind the competencies.
Step 2: Consult broadly, not just senior leaders
Your people know what great performance looks like in their context. Gather input from:
- Executives
- Team leaders
- High performers
- Employee resource groups
- Culturally diverse team members
This ensures the framework is inclusive, culturally appropriate, and representative of real behaviours on the ground.
Step 3: Translate culture into competencies
This is where culture becomes practical.
For example:
- “Collaboration” may translate into behaviours like openly sharing information or proactively involving colleagues in problem-solving.
- “Leadership” may mean empowering people, giving effective feedback, and modelling composure under pressure.
- “Customer obsession” may include understanding customer needs deeply, anticipating issues, and solving problems with empathy.
Aim for 10 - 12 core competencies, each supported by clear behavioural descriptors that define what “good” looks like at your organisation, not somewhere else.
Step 4: Make it practical and observable
Each competency should have behavioural indicators such as:
- “Demonstrates emotional composure under pressure.”
- “Encourages creative and well-reasoned ideas from others.”
- “Takes ownership even when outcomes don’t go as planned.”
Observable behaviours make the framework usable for performance reviews, coaching, hiring, and feedback.
2. Turn Competencies Into Measurement: Bringing the Framework to Life
Once your competencies and behaviours are defined, the next step is measurement. Without measurement, a competency framework is just a poster on the wall.
Why measurement matters
Measurement helps you:
- Benchmark current performance
- Identify strengths and development gaps
- Understand how different groups perceive leadership
- Validate whether your competencies are truly embedded in practice
Best-practice measurement methods
A reliable competency measurement system usually includes:
- 360-degree feedback (managers, peers, direct reports, stakeholders)
- Self-reflection assessments
- Skills assessments
- Continuous pulse check-ins
This multi-source approach reduces bias and provides a complete picture of how consistently behaviours are demonstrated.
Culturally appropriate measurement
Traditional 360 tools often reinforce bias, especially for culturally diverse employees. To avoid this:
- Use behaviourally anchored rating scales
- Provide cultural context for raters
- Allow customisation to organisational norms
- Avoid vague descriptors like “professionalism,” which can be interpreted differently across cultures
3. Turn Insights Into Development Plans: Building Capability With Purpose
Assessment alone does not create change. The real value lies in turning insights into practical development plans.
From data → to insights → to action
Once measurement data is collected, employees should receive:
- A clear summary of strengths
- The top development priorities
- Behaviour-level insights (not just broad competencies)
- Trends across respondent groups
- Differences between self-perception and how others perceive them
With this intelligence, you can start shaping development pathways.
Why personalised development matters
Generic development plans don’t work because they treat all leaders or team members the same. A personalised plan should:
- Address the highest-impact behaviours
- Provide 2–3 realistic development goals
- Include specific practice-based actions
- Offer suggestions for coaching, training, and real-world application
For instance, our platform automatically generates personalised development plans based on competency gaps and behavioural insights, saving coaches, HR teams, and leaders hours of manual work.
4. Track Progress Over Time: Make Development a Continuous Cycle
Competency development is not an annual event, it’s an ongoing process. Organisations that build maturity around competencies are those that consistently track growth over time.
Why tracking matters
Tracking lets you:
- See where leaders are improving
- Identify persistent capability gaps
- Prioritise investment in training
- Reinforce the behaviours that drive your culture
- Demonstrate ROI on leadership development initiatives
Your tracking system should include:
- Regular pulse check-ins: Short, lightweight assessments every few months.
- Follow-up micro 360s: Targeted assessments on only the competencies being developed.
- Progress dashboards: So leaders can visually see their growth.
Final Thoughts: A modern competency framework is a culture, not a document
Learning how to create a competency framework is about much more than choosing competencies. It’s about building an end-to-end system that:
- Reflects your culture
- Measures behaviour reliably and fairly
- Translates insights into meaningful development
- Tracks progress continuously
Most organisations struggle not because they lack good intentions, but because they lack the tools to make this process scalable.
If you're serious about building capability, strengthening leadership, and embedding culture in a measurable way, starting with the right competency framework, and the right system behind it, will set your organisation up for long-term success.