Understanding the Importance of Sophistication in Assessing Strengths and Competency

Competency assessments often focus on identifying a set number of strengths, but the real focus should be on the sophistication at which individuals are operating. The market is shifting from descriptive assessments to developmental assessments, which emphasize measuring lines of development or intelligences. There is a lack of sophisticated thinking about competency phenomena, with confusion between behaviors, skills, competences, and capabilities. Many organizations lack a basic understanding of behavior as a phenomena and often struggle to measure behaviors with the required precision. It is suggested that organizations should have discussions about the levels of sophistication in each behavior. Additionally, competency frameworks often lack the precision required to quantify the level at which leaders are operating and how to move them to the next level to drive different results.