Interpersonal Excellence

About the Competence Framework

Each of the five key stages is written in first person, to enable the individual to benchmark and assess their competence. The stages all align to one of the CMI Membership Grades, build on the competencies from the previous stage and underpin CMIs key products and services (including apprenticeships, qualifications, ManagementDirect content)

CMI Membership Grades

Stage 1

Aspiring Manager (CMI Membership Grade - Affiliate)

Relates to individuals that are just at the start of their management and leadership career. (Typical roles could include Team Leader, Front Line Worker, Generalist)

Stage 2

First Line Manager (CMI Membership Grade - Associate)

Relates to practising First Line Managers. They supervise and/or manage a team to achieve clearly defined outcomes. (Typical roles could include Team Leader, Supervisor, Project Officer)

Stage 3

Middle Manager (CMI Membership Grade - Member)

Relates to managers and leaders who manage staff and activities with a level of autonomy as part of the delivery of their organisational strategy. (Typical roles could include practising Operations Manager, Departmental Manager, Regional or Divisional Manager, aspiring Chartered Managers)

Stage 4

Senior Manager (CMI Membership Grade - Chartered Manager)

Relates to experienced managers and leaders that drive business activities in order to deliver long term organisational success. (Typical roles could include Professional Manager, Senior Manager or Director)

Stage 5

Executive (CMI Membership Grade - Fellow Or Chartered Fellow)

Relates to leaders and managers that formulate the strategic direction of the business in line with their organisation’s mission, vision and values. (Typical roles could include practising or aspiring CEO, Managing Director, Director)

Providing purpose and direction

Requires managers and leaders to create and/or maintain a culture where everybody has a sense of purpose and knows what is expected of them at work

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Outstanding Leadership	I know my role as the leader of a team and demonstrate the skills required to lead my team by being responsible for the output of others, applying a consistent approach and directing my own activities.	I lead a high-performing team by providing a consistent approach to leadership; building mutual trust and respect; guiding, supporting and developing each individual; and motivating others to achieve	I lead, guide and support multiple and/or remote teams; and am able to recognise achievement of individuals within these teams	I shape common purpose, recognise outstanding performance, and provide freedom within my teams that enables them to be creative and innovate	I exemplify inspirational, responsive, ethical and values-based leadership that focuses on people, in order to build engagement and develop a high-performance, agile and collaborative culture.
Having A Sense Of Purpose	I am able to outline how the organisation’s purpose and vision impacts my team	I understand the organisation's purpose, vision and structure	I am able to outline how the organisation's purpose, values, mission, ethics and structure influence its culture and impact its teams and individuals	I implement strategies to ensure the achievement of the organisation's purpose, vision and culture	I lead on the organisation’s purpose, values, mission, ethics, structure and governance; disseminating how and why these influence its culture, focus and impact on staff
Creating Sense Of Belonging (Including Discrimination, Harassment And Diversity, Safeguarding, Prevent, Staff Welfare And Wellness, And Modern Slavery)	I am aware of my responsibility for welfare in the workplace; promote a culture of inclusion; and report concerns where required in order to help create a sense of belonging within the team.	I encourage belonging and buy-in; explain the key issues for welfare in the workplace and the organisational approach to equality, diversity and inclusion; manage and monitor these within my team.	I recognise the key issues for welfare within the workplace, initiating interventions and complying with reporting mechanisms; through the discussion of legal and organisational contexts around equality, diversity and inclusion	I facilitate a culture of belongingness and belief across multiple teams; explaining the responsibilities of the teams in relation to the organisational approach to CSR	I initiate strategies and interventions relating to welfare in the workplace; encouraging, setting and driving an EDI orientated culture by creating a sense of belonging and belief at all levels within the organisation.
Meeting Expectations	I know what is expected of me and my team, am able to discuss these expectations with my supervisor, prioritise workloads for my team and help them achieve their goals	I provide clear objectives and accountabilities for my team by communicating team expectations and delegating work effectively	I introduce and maintain clear and easy to use processes for my team to ensure that team objectives and expectations are met, and identify and respond to challenges	I implement a clear, easy to use process that is aligned to strategic priorities; articulating the responsibilities of my role and of the roles associated with mine in relation to individual, team and organisational expectations.	I demonstrate the skills and knowledge required to successfully run a harmonious, constructively engaged and diverse organisation; that has clear and easy to follow organisational processes in place which align to strategic priorities;
Managing Performance	I recognise achievement within my team and provide constructive feedback and feedforward on their performance	I use performance management techniques to identify achievements and deliver constructive and fast feedback and feedforward within my team	I identify and reward achievement and outstanding performance, and deliver constructive and fast feedback and feedforward for multiple teams	I manage performance and develop teams into high performance units that rewards outstanding performance	I establish high work standards that sets ambitious, risky yet attainable goals for the organisation and measures progress against targets.
Ensuring Resilience	I am aware of the importance of work/life balance and am able to discuss its impact within my team	I help build a culture of resilience and accountability to ensure a healthy work/life balance	I foster a culture of resilience and capability, and am able to identify challenges that may impact on a healthy work/life balance	I promote a culture of resilience, and build capability to ensure a healthy and sustainable work/life balance	I build a culture of resilience and capability, that promotes the importance of a healthy work/life balance, that and creates a sense of belonging and achieves buy-in throughout the organisation

Developing people and capabilities

Requires managers and leaders to enable people to achieve the things they never thought they could

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Coaching & Mentoring	I understand how coaching or mentoring can improve performance	I develop coaching or mentoring skills to improve performance	I deploy the correct coaching or mentoring skills with individuals or teams to drive results	I champion cross-functional uses of coaching or mentoring	I lead a culture of coaching, mentoring and high integrity feedback
People Performance	I ensure that my team understands what is expected of them	I manage and monitor individual and team performance; suggesting and discussing improvements	I set and manage departmental and individual objectives; dealing with underperformance when it arises	I set and manage operational and personal objectives; dealing with underperformance when it arises	I set organisational objectives
Motivation	I motivate and help others to achieve their outcomes	I motivate and empower to achieve the outcomes of their team(s)	I understand people as individuals and tailor motivational actions accordingly	I enable people to challenge themselves; creating an environment where experiment and risk can be undertaken	I create a climate of collaboration that enables empowerment and delegation; championing diversity of thought.
Talent Management	I am aware of team capabilities and identify those in my team with potential	I adjust job content to stretch emergent talent and encourage the growth of others	I assess current and future team capabilities; developing credible succession candidates	I enable development to retain a talented and inclusive workforce	I employ strategic approaches to talent management, succession, diversity and inclusion

Building Relationships and networks

Requires managers and leaders to build effective relationships and networks, by bringing the outside in and influencing with integrity

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Knowing Your Stakeholders	I know and understand what motivates my stakeholder(s)	I can identify what motivates and demotivates my stakeholder(s)	I demonstrate effective interaction with my stakeholder(s); gathering their opinions	I use the insight of my stakeholder(s) to manage multiple and complex relationships	I build successful relationships across a diverse group of stakeholders
Building Relationships	I can identify what makes a relationship successful	I build and manage a good relationship with my stakeholder(s)	I assess the interpersonal skills and behaviours required to maintain successful relationships	I demonstrate effective interpersonal skills assessing their impact on others	I exemplify the organisation's ethics and values; assessing the impact of relationships on the organisation and stakeholders
Cross Functional Working	I help to support a cross-functional group or team	I support cross-functional group and team working	I implement cross-functional working to support delivery of organisational objectives	I facilitate matrix working to support the delivery of organisational objectives	I build a systemic culture of matrix working to support the delivery of organisational objectives
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion	I help to encourage the value of diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity within the team	I demonstrate a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion	I facilitate equality, diversity and inclusion across internal and external networks	I champion diversity and inclusion; creating equality of opportunity for those in my team	I embed equality, diversity and inclusivity throughout organisational relationships and networks
Interconnected Relationships	I outline the advantages and risk of an increasingly interconnected world	I manage the use of social networking, interactive technologies and helpful internet practices	I can determine the appropriate use of interconnected relationships; assessing the associated advantages and risks	I apply organisational strategy in regards to interconnected relationships; minimising and mitigating risks	I create and maintain the currency of organisational strategy in regards to interconnected relationships
Networking Skills	I help set up and build on internal networks	I grow and build on both internal and external networks; using them to share good practice	I use networks to collaborate, validate, innovate and form my professional identity	I use the collaboration of multiple networks to maintain and develop my professional identity	I operate within an international network, sharing knowledge and benchmarking good practice

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