COMPETENCY

PROFILING ASSIGNMENT

A report of the project completed as a part of the Managerial Competencies and Career
Development Course, submitted to Prof. R.K. Premarajan, XLRI Jamshedpur

SUBMITTED BY
DOLLY ROHIRA [H16078]
LESTON DSOUZA [H16084]
 Behavioral Events Interview (BEI) Analysis
Behavioral Codes and Competency Labels
S. No. Behavioral Codes Competency Labels
1 I was the person who was handling the entire marketing and the tie ups Achievement
with these banks Orientation
2 Others werent getting the deal because there was absence of trust, but Integrity
with us, we acted as an intermediary and there was credibility
3 Before the meeting, I didnt have any idea about accounting. People
were talking something and I didnt know what to talk. Everything Self-starter
worked as a bouncer. I came back. I learned and took 3-4 every nitty
gritty of the entire loan structure
4 I got a friend who was in bank. I called him up, sat with him and Perseverance
understood how the structure worked
5 We got the deal become the person had trust on Saurabh Self-awareness
6 I understood what are the things theyd see in a property business Tenacity
7 Based on my negotiation skills he saw in me after meeting me Self-awareness
8 It was challenging, the person had credibility, the upsides were high Decisiveness
9 There was risk, but ultimately learning quotient was very high Learning Orientation
10 Starting up on your own requires lot of skills, the thrill that if not now, Enthusiasm
when
11 I joined career launcher since I knew I needed to earn money Self-awareness
12 I tried everything, consultants, people who I knew had started up on
their own who could give me reference, social media. We took more Perfectionism
than 100 interviews in one month
13 We hired people from Stephens, SRCC. In this case, at least people were
good. Hiring these people was relatively easy because you can see the Leadership
willingness to work
14 People were motivated when you tell them that youll have learning Learning Orientation
now and a greater value later on
15 Saurabh and I used to sit with the employees and we used to tell them Learning Orientation
that this is how you should treat the customer. It was on the job training.
16 We tried having peer to peer learning framework but we realized this Unconventionality
wont work in India and wed need hierarchy
17 If I could go back and change things. I wont have launched my business Perfectionism
this early. I would make sure everything was setup perfectly
18 I believe we failed at training our Sales team in the right manner. In Subordinate
hindsight, this I would like to have changed Development
19 When I worked as a trader, I had to learn a lot. I had to learn about corn, Learning Orientation
I had to learn how to trade in stock and commodities. I learnt a lot in
this job
20 I learnt a lot about finance and financial reports in my job as a trader, Learning Orientation
which late I found useful in my other job
21 If I am managing a team, I need to make sure that each and every Subordinate
employee is happy. Unless they were motivated, we wont get the Development
output
 22 We needed to ensure our employees felt happy. This we realized very Creativity
early. And hence our offices had Bean Bags, a good music system and
even Beer after 6 pm. Often wed persuade our employees to stay
beyond 6 pm, with the lure of Beer
23 In my job as a teacher, after I was done with my lectures, I would make Development of
sure my students solved questions from older papers that would help Others
them gain confidence
24 In one of my classes, when I was 23, all my students were older than Self-Awareness
me. And for a while no one listened to me because none of them felt
they could learn from someone as young as me
25 I had to build credibility. To be credible in their eyes, I simplified things Action Orientation
and also based my teachings on questions from older exam papers and
in the end was successful in gaining their trust. I enabled them
26 My partner and I had our differences. He was a more result oriented Self-Awareness
person, while I was a more process and people oriented person.
27 When I had differences with my partner, I would often succeed in Influencing
convincing him to see my point of view
28 My subordinates tell me that they never felt that I was like a boss with Interpersonal Skills
them
29 I would always manage my own work and targets and try to lead by Impact on Others
example

Summary of Competencies identified

Summary of competencies identified
Competency Frequency of occurrence (out of 29)
Achievement Orientation 1
Integrity 1
Self-starter 1
Perseverance 1
Tenacity 1
Self-awareness 5
Decisiveness 1
Learning Orientation 5
Enthusiasm 1
Perfectionism 2
Leadership 1
Unconventionality 1
Development of subordinates and others 3
Creativity 1
Action orientation 1
Influencing 1
Interpersonal skills 1
Impact on others 1

 Identification of dominant competencies:
I. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a quality of a person which makes him conscious of himself - his needs, his character,
his capability and so on.

General Indicators of the self-awareness:

Is conscious of his strengths and accepts his weaknesses

Understands the limitations with respect to his or her ambition
Adopts good habits consciously and rejects poor habits
Maintains awareness of ones emotions and adapts his/her response to be more effective and
impactful
Is aware of his/her motivations and driving factors
Recognizes personal capacity and limitations, manages time and emotions accordingly
Possesses a mindset of continuous learning and improvement

Candidates behavioral indicators of self-awareness:

Recognizes that their startup could close the deal only because the client trusted his partner
Saurabh and did not over credit himself for his work
He exactly knew why his partner chose to speak to him about his startup it was specifically
because of his negotiation skills
He knew that ambition to start up was one thing, but he will certainly need to sustain himself and
finance his business. Therefore, he decided to join Career Launcher
He knew that despite how much ever knowledge he had, his students in Career Launcher, who
were much older to him, would not listen to him or find hi credible unless he can prove himself to
them
He was aware of his differences with his partner realized that he was a process and people
oriented person while his partner was more result oriented. And he always reasoned out with his
partner whenever any differences arose

II. Learning Orientation

Enthusiastic about development of the self through continuous learning and skill enhancement.
Proactively looks for opportunities to learn more and do better at his/her respective position and has an
almost insatiable thirst for knowledge.

General Indicators of the learning-orientation:

Engages in learning activities to enhance ones skills and knowledge

Looks out for opportunities to get involved in learning and development of self
Accepts challenging tasks and focuses on self-learning to work around the challenge
Keeps oneself updated with the latest know-how related to their own job and skillset
Identifies their own interests, strengths and weakness and is proactive in working on them
through involvement in developmental activities
 Seeks feedback from peers, subordinates and superiors to help himself identify his areas of
improvement
Participates in discussions, courses, tasks outside of his/her comfort zone which could help in his
personal and professional development

Candidates behavioral indicators of learning orientation:

The candidate focused on the learning quotient involved in starting up despite there being high
risk associated with it
He regarded the learning to be his bestselling point when he was hiring people to work in his
startup
Prioritized the learning experience of his employees at the top and made sure both he and his
partner spend enough time training employees themselves on the job
When working as a trader, he indulged himself in learning about all the details related to
commodity trading despite being from an engineering background himself and having marginal
knowledge about trading
Connected his work in the startup with his prior experience as a trader and utilized the skills
already acquired as much as possible
When making a pitch for the client, reached out to his friends from financing background and
learnt all the details about accounting and how deals worked out in that industry

III. Development of subordinates and others

Prioritizes development and coaching of ones subordinates, team members and other who they work
with. Focuses on improving the skill set of people around which in turn leads to improvement in their
performance

General Indicators of the development of subordinates and others:

Sets realistic standards of expectation from people

Encourages their team to perform better
Helps their teammates to get access to platforms that they can use to sharpen their own skills
Nurtures and encourages their team and polishes their ideas through his/her inputs and expertise
Encourages team to experiment with their work and learn
Creates a comfortable environment in the team that fosters mutual growth and development
while achieving excellence at work

Candidates behavioral indicators of development of subordinates and others:

Expressed his regret of not being able to train their sales team well and wants to work on this in
future
Focuses on the happiness and satisfaction of each and every employee in terms of the learning
they are experiencing in their job
 As a teacher, he made sure that his students went back and solved more questions which would
give them more confidence in what they were learning
Appreciated in his subordinates the will to learn an perform and focus on their development at
the job

 Competency Based Interview (CBI) Analysis

Interviewee Profile
Uday Sharma is a B.E Graduate in Computer Science from BITS Pilani, Goa. He has employed with CISCO
Systems for 34 months as a Network Consulting Engineer. In this capacity, he provided Network Strategy
consultation to many of CISCOs biggest clients.

34 months and several initiatives and successes later, Uday decided to pursue his MBA in Business
Management in XLRI Jamshedpur.

Rating Scale
Rating Meaning Description
5 Exceptional Multiple example of a high level competence in this area. Most
(75%) behavioral indicators observed in full, high level of
complexity with no significant omissions
4 Clear, unambiguous evidence of competence in this area. Many
indicators (65%) observed in full, and others partially. Negative
Exceeds indicators, if present were
Expectation inconsequential
3 Some positive evidence, but scope for further development.
Meets Some indicators (40%) were fully or partially observed, but other
Expectation behaviors were omitted. There were some negative evidences
2 Below Expectation A few, partially achieved indicators (20%) were observed,
but many were absent or were outweighed by negative behavior
1 Absent or The interview produced no evidence to support the presence of
negative evidence this competence.

Competency Tested
I. Practical Creativity
Practical creativity is the ability to solve problems in innovative ways. While creativity primarily focuses
on unrestricted imagination, practical creativity is all about coming up with practical solutions. Practical
creativity is efficient and gets results. A person with such a competency must be able to handle difficult
situations and come out on top by efficient management and innovative ideas.

Behavioral Indicators:
Can think of innovative ways to solve a problem
Can work around ambiguity and uncertainty
Manages crisis effectively
Can work creatively under pressure and be resourceful.

Questions for the Interview:
S. No. Behavioral Indicators Questions
1 Can think of innovative ways to solve Tell me about a time when your project was stuck
a problem and you had to come up with an innovative
solution to move forward

2 Can work around ambiguity and Think of a Time when you had no clarity on the
uncertainty requirement of the task. How did you work
around it?
3 Manages Creativity effectively Consider a situation where things fall completely
out of plan. How will you redefine everything
given the constraints of time and resources?

4 Can work creatively under pressure Think of a Time when you had been given a job to
and be resourceful complete in a very narrow deadline. What did you
do to make your work more efficient?

Evidence from the Interview:
S. No. Behavioral Indicators Evidence
1 Can think of innovative ways to solve I was once in a fire-fighting situation, where we
a problem had to deliver something to a client within a week,
which was not enough time. What we did was to
contact other teams, find pre-cooked material
and assembled them together to hand over the
deliverable to the client.
2 Can work around ambiguity and
uncertainty Our Sales team often sold a technology to a
customer who was not always fully aware of the
details of the technology or his own
requirements. It was then my job to work around
it to discover the needs and deliver an optimal
solution to the client.
3 Manages Creativity effectively We once had a client who changed his
requirements very close to the deadline. It was
not possible for us to discard all our work and
start a fresh with a new set of requirements.
What we did here was give the client the existing
report and assured him that this would help him
get started, and then bought time with this tactic
to give him the new deliverables.

4 Can work creatively under pressure I was once in a fire-fighting situation, where we
and be resourceful had to deliver something to a client within a week,
which was not enough time. What we did was to
contact other teams, find pre-cooked material
and assembled them together to hand over the
deliverable to the client
 5 Can think of ways to handle crisis I was once in a situation where the project we
were working on was close to its deadline and we
realized that we had made a major mistake. We
talked to the client and bought time from them
which was way shorter than the initial window
given to us and we stretched and made sure the
work was delivered to the client with top quality
and in due time.

Observations and Competency Rating:

Uday shows high competence in terms of managing crisis and being resourceful. There have been
instances where he dealt with difficult deadlines using his creativity and helping his team out of crisis.
Also, he has shown resourcefulness by bringing the inputs of multiple teams together to his use and thus
delivering the output to the client both faster and with better quality. Uday was found to be highly
competent also in terms of handling ambiguity and lack of clarity in his work. He highlighted that he kept
his communication very strong and effective with his clients. He prioritized alignment with the clients
requirements well and made sure his team validated the requirements before starting with any project.
This helped them keep the clients in confidence. His evidence however showed hardly any specific
instances where he could actually provide innovative solutions to a difficult problem. His practical
creativity was high in terms of ways of dealing with crisis and handling ambiguity but low in terms of being
innovative in a way that could lead to improvement in their day to day work. Therefore, we rate him a 4
on 5 in practical creativity.

1 2 3 4 5

II. Influencing
Influencing is the ability possessed by an individual to influence another individual or a group of
individuals. This involves a strong presence of mind, mental clarity, strategic thinking, and excellent
reasoning and communication skills. Such a person effectively represents his/her position on issues to
gain support and buy-in from others.

Behavioral Indicators:
Conveys his/her position well even when faced with an engaged audience with a high
degree of opposition
Effectively articulates his/her position and helps others understand the underlying
issues and concerns
Recognizes those who are important influencers and obtains their buy-in for his ideas
Realizes that different people react to different influencing strategies and acts
accordingly.


Questions for the Interview:
S. No. Behavioral Indicators Questions
1 Conveys his/her position well even - Have you been in a situation where you
when faced with an engaged have had to convince an idea to a group
audience with a high degree of amid high opposition to your idea?
- If you are in a situation, where you have
opposition. to present an idea to a group and they are
vehemently opposed to it. How would
you go about convincing them?
2 Effectively articulates his/her - Can you recall a situation where you had
position and helps others to influence others and get them to
understand the underlying issues accept your ideas?
- Suppose you have identified some
and concerns. problems in the way a particular solution
is designed and have alternate ideas. How
do you go about explaining that to the
team that made the original plans?
3 Recognizes those who are important - If you had to get the buy in for an idea in
influencers and obtains their buy-in your organization of different people,
for his ideas. superiors, colleagues, subordinates etc.
How do you go about deciding whom to

talk to?
4 Realizes that different people react - People are different and react differently.
to different influencing strategies Can you recall a situation when you have
and acts accordingly. had to use different tactics with different
people to convince them?

Evidence from the Interview:

S. No. Behavioral Indicators Evidence
1 Conveys his/her position well even Sometimes members often had the notion that
when faced with an engaged any idea that would improve the implementation
audience with a high degree of would make them redundant and hence were
opposed to it. Therefore, I would never tell the
opposition. others that they were wrong. Just highlight that
there was a better way of doing things and
support that with Data.

2 Effectively articulates his/her I realized that my overseas team was often

position and helps others opposed to my ideas on process improvements
understand the underlying issues because they were concerned that such initiatives
would make their role redundant and that they
and concerns. might lose their jobs. Therefore, I always
positioned my idea as a win-win situation and
convinced them they this would help them. I
would compare results via simulation and show
them tangible benefits.
3 Recognizes those who are important I would always make it a point to discuss my ideas
influencers and obtains their buy-in with my manager and colleagues because I didnt
for his ideas. want them to feel left out. Once I had done that I
would present the idea to senior leadership.


I recognized that apart from my clients, there
were internal stakeholders too and had to
convince them too.

4 Realizes that different people react I have always found some who would be
to different influencing strategies supportive to new ideas and others who were
and acts accordingly. always averse to it. For the latter I always made
sure Id back my arguments with data. Ask them

for their concerns and then go about addressing
them.

Apart from my clients, I also had to convince
internal stakeholders. Selling to them was
different as they were more concerned about the
financials. So I had to focus on that and prepare
my case accordingly and decide my strategy
accordingly.

Observations and Competency Rating:

Uday showed high competence in articulating his thoughts to his audience as well as in putting forward
his thoughts like a win-win situation to the stakeholders. He also understands that different stakeholders
would have different interests and he knew how to articulate his ideas such that everyone can get
something out of it. He used the backing of him homework for convincing his clients rather that talking
baselessly. When he sensed that others opposed him in his opinions, he used tangible benefits to convince
them. He made sure he never bluntly told any client that what they were doing was wrong. He just told
them that there was a better way of doing the same thing, which worked while convincing others. He
always made it point to get his colleagues and his managers before pitching his ideas to the senior
leadership.

1 2 3 4 5