A View From the Top: The Core Competencies That Drive Business Success!
By: Ron Bower
At the top of every successful organization, there are typically two people: one who defines the future of the organization and one who makes sure that everyone is aligned and does all the heavy lifting to make sure the work gets done. In our experience, some clearly distinct core competencies define each of these roles.
Historically, you would see these jobs titled as CEO and COO, or something very similar.
If you are familiar with the business operating model EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System®, developed by Gino Wickman and fully defined in his book Traction), then you know the concept of running your company with a Visionary (who sees the future) and an Integrator (who makes it happen) in the top two spots on the org chart.
Regardless of what you call these jobs or what business operating model you use, (I’m going to use the Visionary and Integrator terms because the framework that Wickman created for these jobs resonates with me), these are the core competencies that we have seen most prominently in the highly successful leaders in each role:
Visionary:
Strategic Vision
Creativity
Passion at Work
Optimism
Resilience
Change Champion
Empowerment of Others
Fosters Teamwork
Influence
Professional Presence
"As the visionary, my role is just that, to provide vision and clarity on our strategic direction and culture, while looking out for what’s next and where we need to go as a business and team. While the integrator takes the vision and truly makes it reality, my role is to be the champion of our culture and to provide the passion, or glue as I like to think of it, to excite and enthusiastically push our team and our clients forward."
- Chris Baldwin, Chief Visionary Officer and Founder, True Digital Communications
Integrator:
Drive for Results
Collaboration
Process Oriented
Prioritization
Quality Focused
Sense of Urgency
Resourcefulness
Accountability
Business Acumen
"As the integrator, my role is to help transform our company's vision into a sound executable plan, ensure everyone is aligned and the proper processes and resources are in place, and keep our team focused and accountable to our goals."
- Leah Chalet, Integrator and COO, True Digital Communications
What do you think? Are those the right combination of competencies to drive the sustainable growth your organization is looking for? Are your job descriptions aligned with this? Are your interview questions aligned with this? Are your performance reviews aligned with this? How would you upgrade these lists?
According to Chris Baldwin, “The Visionary-Integrator relationship is very powerful.” The additional role clarity “has helped Leah and I capture the magic in our relationship and skills.”
Having clear and defined roles over the past few years “has been a game changer for our business,” according to Leah Chalet. “We have a vision, plan, focus and accountability across our team. It has enabled us to achieve what we refer to as ‘smart growth’ through effective scaling of our revenue, team, systems, and processes. Not only have we achieved our goals for growth over the past two years - we've exceeded them, achieving 31% and 33% growth in top line revenue for the years ending 2021 and 2022 with coinciding triple-digit percent increases in profitability year over year.”
If you want support implementing a world-class competency model to help define all of your jobs, and create custom interview guides to enable hiring success throughout your organization, just drop me a note at [email protected] or check out our website.