Personal Effectiveness

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).

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).

Managing Yourself

Requires managers and leaders to maximise and reflect on their own performance; be aware of their impact on others, and show commitment to continuing their own personal and professional development.

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Knowing Role Within Organisation	I recognise my position in the workplace and my team; reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses when deciding to ask for help	I am aware of my responsibility to myself and my team; recognising the requirement of professional code(s) of conduct	I demonstrate my personal responsibility to myself, my team and the organisation, adhering to professional code(s) of conduct	I demonstrate a high standard of personal and professional responsibility to myself, my team and my organisation, applying code(s) of practice and professional standards	I apply excellent standards in personal and professional responsibility towards the organisation and its employees; adhering to code(s) of practice and exemplifying professional standards
Self Awareness	I am aware of the impact of my actions on my stakeholder(s)	I build reciprocal relationships through self awareness	I understand the impact of using self awareness to facilitate results	I use HIGH impact self awareness to deliver results	I advocate a systemic culture of self awareness to contribute towards superior performance
Adaptability And Time Management	I respond effectively to new and evolving situations and can prioritise tasks appropriately	I effectively manage my workload, associated pressure, and am able to adapt to new and evolving situations	I manage multiple workloads, and can adapt to new and evolving situations with creativity, innovation and enterprise	I proactively manage new and evolving situations to mitigate against anticipated risks and influence others in the management of their workload(s)	I work to embed adaptability within my organisation and build a systemic culture of effective time management
Leading By Example	I am a role model for my team, acting ethically and with integrity	I demonstrate appropriate values and behaviours	I apply different leadership styles appropriately	I demonstrate the mastery of different leadership styles	I demonstrate and encourage inspirational leadership across multiple organisational structures
Being Resilient	I recognise when to ask for help	I acknowledge the outcome of situations and learn from the lessons they provide	I am able to demonstrate an understanding of strategies used to manage challenging situations	I promote the use of strategies in the management of adverse situations	I develop and promote a culture of resilience; mitigating the impact of adversity
Lifelong Learning And Reflective Practice	I reflect on my own performance, respond to feedback and feedforward from colleagues and can identify my own learning and developmental requirements	I seek and respond to feedback and feedforward from colleagues and take responsibility for my own learning and development	I reflect on my own capabilities and behaviours using justifiable criteria set by myself and others, and use feedback to adapt my own learning and development	I apply learning from feedback received proactively, and manage my own learning and development with the intent of achieving career goals	I analyse myself and my own actions, demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and integrity in response to the needs of the organisation, and enable a culture of lifelong learning within my own career

Making Decisions

Requires managers and leaders to make and implement informed decisions that
are ethical and maximise personal, team and organisational performance.

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Gathering Information	I know how to collect a range of information from relevant sources; to identify standard problems	I use multiple relevant sources of information to identify problems	I analyse a range of information sources; using this knowledge to develop solutions	I synthesise information and insight; to inform the decision making process	I build an information rich environment; aiding decision making within the organisation
Analysing Data	I present options for my team and myself in an effective way	I use accurate interpretation of data to support my decision making process	I analyse and present data to a high standard; supporting the decision making process	I critically analyse data; identifying options and contingencies	I assess strategic intelligence; linking disparate information to identify trends and patterns
Considering Options	I consider appropriate courses of action; being flexible to changing circumstances	I can identify and justify courses of action and decide upon appropriate contingencies	I analyse and evaluate courses of action based upon their impact to the business	I appraise courses of action in ambiguous and unpredictable contexts	I develop multiple strategic courses of action; responding flexibly and positively to ambiguous situations
Responsible Decision Making	I communicate and implement the decisions made by those above me	I demonstrate the confidence to make decisions and take ownership of my choices	I create an environment that enables others to make decisions without fear of failure	I make justified decisions in unfamiliar contexts; accepting accountability for achieving personal and team outcomes	I demonstrate the courage to make difficult and ethically correct decisions in ambiguous and unpredictable contexts
Review Effectiveness	I can identify whether an action is successful or unsuccessful	I consider the outcome of decisions; making recommendations based upon the information I have	I utilise feedback loops to review the impact of decisions taken on my stakeholder(s)	I scrutinise decisions; communicating the feedback to my stakeholder(s)	I review and take action on the impact of strategic decisions

Communicating & Influencing

Requires managers and leaders to communicate effectively and appropriately, according to audience and purpose, and utilise their influencing skills to persuade and negotiate.

Competency	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Communicating Effectively	I communicate accurately using written, verbal, non-verbal and symbolic media	I can choose the form of communication that is appropriate for different situations and audiences	I am able to communicate effectively in response to different audiences, situations and degrees of complexity	I disseminate strategic and complex information regularly to different stakeholders	I create and share strategic messaging and continuous information that has been adapted for different audiences
Providing Clarity	I ensure that messages I pass on have been understood	I use informal mechanisms to check that intended messages have been understood	I set up tests, in order to check that intended messages have met expectations	I use formal feedback loops to verify strategic messaging	I create an inclusive environment; using transparent communications to instil trust
Handling Conflict	I handle difficult conversations confidently	I recognise situations that are likely to lead to conflict, installing measures to resolve challenging situations	I appropriately apply conflict resolution techniques to manage challenging situations	I create an environment that enables others to resolve conflict	I employ diplomacy with diverse groups of internal and external stakeholders; confidently handling conflict
Influencing Others	I appropriately use negotiation and persuasion skills to gain the support of my team	I use empathy, active listening and open questioning techniques to persuade and influence others	I demonstrate the breadth of my influencing skills; up, down and throughout the line of management	I influence others by highlighting the benefits of strategies, ideas and plans	I lead large-scale, inter-organisational influencing and negotiation strategies
Communicating Effectively	I communicate accurately using written, verbal, non-verbal and symbolic media	I can choose the form of communication that is appropriate for different situations and audiences	I am able to communicate effectively in response to different audiences, situations and degrees of complexity	I disseminate strategic and complex information regularly to different stakeholders	I create and share strategic messaging and continuous information that has been adapted for different audiences

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