How Do You Measure and Develop Essential but Undeclared Skills in Your Team?

Every job has at least a few, if not one, skill sets that are deal-breakers. For HR, it is a high degree of sensitivity or Emotional Intelligence (EI); for Accounts, it's managing secrecy and having a high data orientation; for Operations, it's firefighting, and so on. These skill sets are considered 'soft,' hence mostly never mentioned in a KRA/KPA.

Managing Undeclared Skill Sets

What are your views on managing these undeclared skill sets and measuring them? Remember, what gets measured gets developed! Apart from shadowing and mentoring, what are your practices in developing them?

Clarification on KRAs and Skill Sets

First, let me clarify about KRAs. These are developed to measure business performance in general and an individual's or department's performance in particular. KRAs are never designed to measure skill sets, whether declared or undeclared. The requirement of specific skills is mentioned in the Job Description (JD) and not in KRAs.

The Role of Coaching in Skill Development

Coaching is one of the important secondary duties of a manager. A manager is supposed to conduct coaching sessions for his/her juniors to build requisite skills. HR may train managers on coaching skills.

Take the case of a Purchase Manager. He/she may have a KRA such as "Reduction in Inventory Carrying Cost of Raw Materials by ___% by ____ (date)." The Purchase Manager cannot attain this KRA on his/her own. He/she needs support from his/her juniors. This is where coaching comes into the picture. Unless the Purchase Manager coaches his/her juniors on vendor development activities and procurement negotiations, this KRA can never be attained.

Understanding Mentoring

One more clarification is required, and it is on mentoring. In a "Formal Mentoring Programme," efforts are made to build the overall personality of the mentee. A mentor may help the mentee in designing his/her career plan. The mentor's job is to interpret the organization's philosophy, values, etc., and thereby improve the affiliation or engagement of the mentee with the organization. It is not the mentor's job to build specific skills.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar