Microsoft Education Competencies The Education Competencies represent many of the attributes, behaviors, areas of knowledge, skills, and

abilities required for successful job performance in edu cation. The competencies were created in in 2006 and adapted for education. Scho ols and districts around the country are using these tools in a variety of ways. If you are interested in learning more about the Education Competency Wheel ple ase consider attending the Microsoft Institute. . Overview Competencies Success profiles How to use Overview: Who uses competencies and whyThe Education Competencies are designed t o help educators and administrators develop professional skills and proficiencie s. They can also be used to help school districts and other educational organiza tions find the right job candidates to fill key jobs. The interview information on the How to use tab helps people hiring but is also a good tool for profession als to use to identify areas of improvement. The competenciesEach Education Competency includes a definition, four levels of proficiency, sample interview questions, activities and resources to develop ski lls, and examples of overdoing the competency.Go to All competencies page Example profilesThe Competency Wheel shows all the competencies an organization needs as a whole to be successful. Certain roles, however, have greater dependen cies on specific competencies.Individual ExcellenceOperating SkillsStrategic Ski llsCourageOrganizational SkillsResultsGo to success profiles page Success profilesCertain roles have greater dependencies on specific competenci es. The success profiles show the competencies valuable in different job roles. Go to Success profiles page The competenciesRole-specific resources can be found in the Success Profiles sec tion. Each Education Competency includes a definition, four levels of proficienc y, sample interview questions, activities and resources to develop skills, and e xamples of overdoing the competencyK-12Regional superintendentSchool principalHi gh school teacherPrimary and middle school teacherHigh school studentHigher educ ationCollege/university professorTeaching assistantCollege studentGo to All comp etencies page

Start using the Education Competencies The Education Competencies represent many of the attributes, behaviors, areas of knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful job performance. Each Education Competency includes a definition, four levels of proficiency, sample i nterview questions, activities and resources to develop skills, and examples of overdoing the competency. The Education Competency Wheel has been in use by educators since 2006. It was c reated by leadership and talent consulting experts at Lominger and adapted for e ducation. Schools and districts around the country are using this tool in a vari ety of ways. If you are interested in learning more about the Education Competen cy Wheel please consider attending the Microsoft Institute.

Individual excellence Building effective teams Compassion Customer focus Humor

Integrity and trust Interpersonal skills Listening Managing relationships Managing vision and purpose Motivating others Negotiating Personal learning and development Valuing diversity Courage Assessing talent Conflict management Managerial courage Operating skills Developing others Directing others Managing and measuring work Managing through processes and systems Organizing Planning Priority setting Time management Timely decision making Organizational skills Comfort around authority Organizational agility Presentation skills Written communications Strategic skills Creativity Dealing with ambiguity Decision quality and problem solving Functional/technical skills Intellectual acumen Learning on the fly Strategic agility and innovation management Technical learning Results Action oriented Drive for results

Success profiles overviewThe Education Competencies define many of the attribute s, behaviors, areas of knowledge, skills, and abilities that will lead to superi or job performance and professional growth in the education field.Not all compet encies are relevant for every job. Certain roles require an emphasis on specific competencies. For each of the following four positions, a profile has been deve loped that identifies the critical competencies required for success in this pos ition. Use these profiles when considering potential candidates and when conduct ing interviews. K-12Regional superintendentThis profile defines the critical competencies a succ essful regional superintendent in the 21st century should possess. ??School prin cipalThis profile defines the critical competencies a successful principal in th e 21st century should possess.High school teacherThis profile defines the critic al competencies a successful high school teacher in the 21st century should poss

ess. ?Primary and middle school teacherThis profile defines the critical compete ncies a primary and middle school teacher in the 21st century should possess. ?H igh school studentThis profile defines the critical competencies a successful hi gh school student in the 21st century should possess. ? Higher educationCollege/university professorThis profile defines the critical competencies a successful college/university professor in the 21st century shoul d possess.?Teaching assistantThis profile defines the critical competencies a su ccessful teaching assistant in the 21st century should possess. ?College student This profile defines the critical competencies a successful college student in t he 21st century should possess. ?

Using the Education CompetenciesGreat leaders define, shape, and inspire the hum an experience. In a world of ideas, we are adrift without the leaders who realiz e them. For this reason, effective leadership is critical to the success of any organization. With each new student, new partner, new parent, new hire, you have an opportunity to help your school district achieve greater success. That respo nsibility can be overwhelming if you approach it haphazardly.With preparation an d planning, you can focus your efforts and make decisions that add to the long-t erm health and success of your school district. If you are an administrator, tea cher, student, or parent, you can use the Education Competencies to define a job profile, assess candidate competence, and plan for personal and professional gr owth.Define success with competenciesCompetencies describe the functional and be havioral qualities that an individual must possess in order to help an organizat ion achieve success. Each role in an organization requires a different emphasis or mix of competencies. Microsoft worked with Lominger, a leadership development firm, to develop the Education Competencies.Several years ago, Lominger develop ed Microsoft's own set of competencies that helped Microsoft managers and employ ees build a successful organization. The competencies provided Microsoft with a common framework for hiring and professional development that can be described, discussed, and implemented with precision across a global company.Success in edu cationLike the Microsoft competencies, the Education Competencies describe the f ull range of characteristics needed to help a school district achieve its organi zational goals and vision. They were developed in partnership between Microsoft, Lominger, and school leaders from around the world.At the core of the Education Competencies are six qualities that individuals need in order to help school di stricts succeed in the 21st century. These qualities, or success factors, are:In dividual excellence: Ability to achieve results by working effectively with othe rs in various circumstances. Organizational skills: Ability to communicate by va rious means within different organizational settings. Courage: Ability to speak directly, honestly, and with respect in difficult situations. Results: An emphas is on goal-oriented action. Strategic skills: An array of skills used to accompl ish focused, longer-term goals. Operating skills: An array of skills used for da ily management of tasks and relationships.These six success factors form the org anizing principle for the Education Competency Wheel, a visual depiction of the 37 Education Competencies. The success factors make up the inner wheel and are d efined by associated competencies.For example, the success factor Courage is def ined by the competencies: Managerial courage, Assessing talent, and Conflict res olution. Those three competencies describe the attributes, skills, behaviors, an d knowledge individuals need to develop and exhibit Courage, a vital factor for individual and organizational success.Make hiring decisions with the Education C ompetenciesYou can use the Education Competencies to define a job profile, struc ture an interview process, and assess candidate qualities. Use the following pro cess to design and execute a plan for hiring that next great school district emp loyee.1. Create a Success Profile that defines the open position.A successful hi ring process starts with the goal in mind a clear description of the job responsib ilities and the unique mix of competencies required for success. A Success Profi le goes beyond the usual scope of a job description.In a job description, a supe

rvisor usually lists the tasks to be performed in a role. A Success Profile, how ever, describes not only the tasks, but how those tasks will be accomplished, in cluding the personal qualities, skills, behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge requ ired for success in the role.There are Success Profiles that describe the job re sponsibilities and competencies for four typical roles within a school district. If you are hiring for one of these four roles, you may need to customize the jo b responsibilities section or adjust the mix of competencies to assure greater s uccess within your unique school setting.If you are hiring for a role that is no t listed, use these Success Profiles as models for designing a new one that list s the unique job responsibilities and competencies required for that role.A clea rly defined Success Profile allows you to communicate the requirements for the p osition to potential candidates, recruiters, and people involved in the hiring p rocess.2. Create an interview loop and communicate the Success Profile to people involved in the hiring process.Now that you have identified the unique blend of competencies required by a candidate to successfully perform in the position, y ou can use those competencies to structure an interview process, also known as a n interview loop.Follow these steps to create an effective interview loop:1. Ide ntify the mix of perspectives needed.The interview loop consists of several peop le (usually 3-7) who have unique perspectives related to the position for which a candidate is being interviewed. For example, if you are hiring for a high scho ol teacher position, you might include in the loop teachers from other disciplin es or levels, a student, a parent, and an administrator.It's usually best to for m an interview loop to interview all candidates for a given position. That way y ou have the same pool of evaluators assessing each candidate with common criteri a.2. Assign each interviewer one or more competencies on which to assess the can didate.When you make these assignments, consider the interviewer's experience wi th and understanding of each competency. For example, you might have a school ad ministrator, rather than a student, assess a candidate for the Strategic agility and innovation competency. On the other hand, a student might be the perfect pe rson on the loop to consider the candidate's Listening competency.3. Create the schedule for the interview loop.Now that you have identified the people involved in the hiring process and assigned each of them competencies to assess, you can schedule interview times. Coordinate with each person on the loop to set up a t ime that he or she can meet with the candidate.Once you have created the intervi ew schedule, you can manage the interview process throughout the day. You can sh are the schedule with the recruiter or other individuals in the loop in case you are unavailable to oversee the process at some point during the day.3. Intervie w candidates, determine their match with the Success Profile, and provide feedba ck to successfully complete the hiring process.Before meeting with a candidate, review the Success Profile for the role and the competencies that you are assign ed.Understand the job responsibilities associated with the role.Make sure you un derstand the definition and proficiency levels (basic, intermediate, advanced, o r expert) of the competencies you are assigned to evaluate. The proficiency leve l descriptions provide details that can help you assess how well a candidate dis plays a competency. Determine which level of proficiency is appropriate for the open position before the interviews begin.Each competency has several interview questions that you can ask a candidate during an interview. You can ask those qu estions as written, or modify them to make for a more conversational tone during the interview. The answers to the questions provide useful examples and insight into the candidate s level of proficiency related to that competency.After the in terview, take five or ten minutes to reflect on the merits of the candidate. Des cribe your overall impression of the candidate, his or her qualifications relate d to the job responsibilities, and your specific insights as to how well they ex hibit the competencies you probed.Each interviewer should email an assessment of the candidate to all the other loop members immediately following the post-inte rview reflection. That way everyone on the loop stays informed about the progres s of the candidate.In the subject line of the email, summarize your assessment w ith an up or down vote of "hire" or "no hire." In the body of the email you can provide a detailed assessment based on your observations of the candidate.4. Kee p the big picture in mind.As you consider a candidate for hire, think school dis

trict first, open position second. This might seem counterintuitive. Why conside r anything other than the requirements of the current available position? In tod ay's employment market, people tend to change jobs every two to three years. If you look for candidate qualities that succeed in the school district, as opposed to just the position, the likelihood that the candidate would be able to develo p their career within the organization is improved. Over time, that candidate ad ds more value to the organization by growing within it; maximizing recruitment c osts, while decreasing attrition costs.By focusing your interview session on que stions and considerations drawn from the core competencies, you can evaluate the candidate against criteria that leads to success beyond any single role. Succes sful candidates can use the competencies to grow within and beyond their jobs ov er a period of time. The Education Competencies provide assessment critical to p ersonal and professional development.Create a development plan with the Educatio n Competencies Whether you are new to your job or are a long-time school distric t employee, you can use the competencies to create a personal and professional d evelopment plan. Even as a parent or a student, you become more valuable when yo u know your capabilities and how they can be used to help solve problems and bet ter serve others. The Education Competencies can help you identify skills and be haviors you use, or could use more effectively, to get results. 1. Assess your c urrent situation. Locate a Success Profile that defines your role or function wi thin the school district, such as teacher or administrator. If one doesn't exist for your role, work with your supervisor to create one. Describe your primary j ob responsibilities, core competencies for your role, and the suggested proficie ncy level for each competency. Assess your current proficiency level for each co re competency. Compare your current proficiency levels with the suggested profic iency level for each competency. The difference between your actual proficiency level and the suggested proficiency level is called the "gap." This gap analysis provides you with information about which competencies you currently express we ll, and which ones you could develop further. 2. Determine how you want to grow. Are you interested in improving your performance in your current role? Or do yo u want to move into another role? Perhaps you'd like a promotion into school adm inistration, or perhaps a lateral move into another teaching role. Once you iden tify some options for how you want to direct your career, take the next step. Gr ow in your current role. The gap analysis you conducted in step 1 should provide you with information about skills, behaviors, and knowledge that you already po ssess and express well, and those that you could improve in order to get better results in your current role. Continue to step 3. Move up or laterally. If you d ecided that you want to prepare yourself to change your role within the school d istrict, the next step is to perform a gap analysis between the Success Profiles for your current role and the role to which you would like to move. Identify an y overlap in job responsibilities and core competencies. The more overlap that e xists, the more likely it is that you are already functioning within the scope o f the job you desire. If there are similar competencies, check to see if the sug gested proficiency levels are the same. 3. Create a development plan. Identify t he gaps between your current competencies and suggested competencies. If you are considering a new role, you will probably have new competencies to consider as well. Self-assess your current proficiency levels for the new competencies and c ompare them to the suggested proficiency levels for the new competencies. For an y gaps you notice between current and suggested proficiency levels, devise a str ategy to gain the needed experience and skills. Use the development resources to create a plan that identifies developmental activities that you can pursue to d evelop your competencies and close the gap between your current and suggested pr oficiencies.

This competency is one in a set of complete functional and behavioral qualities that, when fully realized, can help lead to professional success. Download the Education

Competency Wheel (Portable Document Format file, 126 MB) View all competencies