Competence or Behavioural Interviews Made Easy

Let's move on to competence or behavioural based interviews.

What does that mean? Competence is a standardized and measurable requirement for an individual to correctly perform a specific job. It is a conglomeration or a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior which may be utilized to improve performance. More generally, it is said to be the state or quality of being sufficiently qualified, or having the ability to perform a specific role. Read also about how you can make use of a typical competencies framework to help you understand the importance better.

So far I've only dealt with interviews that are the standard 'what did you do here' or 'why did you go there' type of interview questions which are based around your CV and what you will bring to the party.

An interesting departure from this style is the behavioural interview where the interviewer is looking for specific evidence of a particular set of abilities or competences.

This is a very common style of interview initially used by recruitment officers who needed to assess competency levels via the applicant's ability to carry himself /herself on such situations.

Performance appraisals can also benefit from understanding these principles.

You can now download the "Phrases for Performance Appraisals Guidebook" and use the exact phrases that professionals use to write their concise and powerful appraisals

Performance appraisals usually provide an opportunity to look back at past behaviour and so consider prior performance. But to be successful they should be more about reaching agreement on what should be done in the future, than just criticising past performance.

STAR Routine: Competency Based Interviews

Like the standard interview there will often be a "background review" to get things moving but after that they will move into a set of questions which will be the same for every candidate to determine whether you've got the level of competence or ability in the area they want.

Many companies call this the 'STAR' routine

STAR stands for:     Situation

                            Task

                            Action

                            Result

What they now want is for you to outline a Situation where you used the particular ability;

Or the Task that you had to do;

Describe the Action that you took;

Summarise the Results of your actions.

This may sound complex, but it's actually a very straightforward interview to master.

That's mainly because they tell you beforehand what competences or abilities they intend to cover!!

A typical set of abilities they might want to explore could be:

• Planning and Organising
• Motivational Fit
• Customer Service Orientation
• Teamwork & Collaboration
• Problem Solving
• Work Standards
• Communication
• Delegation
• Initiative
• Developing Organisational Talent

With knowledge of the STAR routine and your skills stories you'll have no trouble with this one!!

So where do your competences come from? Competence comes from your skills! Before you set off, think about a definition of each of the competences above, as it relates to your job.

Then you must work out how you can relate a short story describing how you do each thing with an example to illustrate it. Read more about how to prepare for a behavioral interview and create your own 'scenarios'.

Typical Behavioural Questions

Let me start you off with some competence based questions that you may come across...

Planning and Organizing is possessing the ability to establish appropriate courses of action for self and /or others to accomplish a specific goal; planning proper assignments of personnel and appropriate allocation of resources.

Key Actions might be: set priorities; establish objectives and milestones; estimate times and schedule activities; identify and allocate resources; use relevant tools (files, charts etc.)

A typical question might be:

"Tell me about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you determine what took top priority in scheduling your time?"

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Motivational Fit could be described as the extent to which job activities and responsibilities; the organisation’s culture and values, and the community are consistent with the type of work that is personally satisfying. The actual definition depends on you.

Key Actions may include opportunities for interaction with others; variety of tasks; fast work pace; achievement; development; coaching or leading others.

A typical question might be:

“Tell about a time when you had opportunities to work independently from your manager. How satisfied were you and why?”

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Problem Solving is the ability to commit to a course of action after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions and factual information, taking into consideration resources, constraints and organizational values.

Key Actions would include defining the decision criteria; considering alternatives based on pertinent facts; weighing the ‘pros and cons’; informing others.

A typical question might be:

“Occasionally we make decisions our manager disagrees with. Tell me about a time this happened and why they disagreed with you.”

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Work Standards includes setting high standards for self and staff workers as well as for the organisation. Being dissatisfied with average performance.

Key Actions would be setting and emphasizing high performance standards. Showing pride and recognition when high standards are met. To show dissatisfaction with low standards.

Typical questions might include:

“Everyone is pressured from time to time, to complete a project at the expense of quality. Tell me about a time when this happened to you, what did you do?”

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Delegation is defined as allocating decision-making authority to appropriate direct reports; utilizing their time, skills and potential effectively.

Key Actions would be targeting assignments appropriately; give responsibility for action; clarify boundaries of responsibility; show confidence; provide relevant resources and follow up procedures.

Questions on this ability might include:

“When assigning work to one of your direct reports, how did you determine how much instruction to give? Give me an example of when you applied this.”

You can find out more about the key skill of Delegation; what and when to delegate and whom you should delegate to by going to this page Time Management & Delegation on my sister site at Career Consulting Limited

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Initiative shows active attempts to influence events to achieve goals. Being self-starting rather than passively waiting for something or someone. Taking action; being proactive to achieve more than is required.

Key Actions include generating ideas for improvement; solving problems without being asked; seeking self-development opportunities; doing more than is required – going the extra mile.

Questions to determine initiative might include:

“How have your management techniques differed from other people in your company. What did you do that was different? Give me an example.”

You see how easy illustrating your competence becomes?

1 Define the competence or ability (which they’ll tell you about) then

2 Build up a little story or 'scenario' to illustrate your competence. Read more about how to prepare for a behavioral interview and create your own 'scenarios'.

3 Use the Key Actions to form the basis of your competence story

Take this approach,and your own competence at dealing with this type of interview will lift off!!

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Competences, Interviews and CV Writing

When you have worked on understanding how to define your own competences, it will also help you when you are preparing a new CV or resume. I recommend that you re-visit the CV Writing page and see how you can improve your core competency or key strengths statements.

Because competencies are a standardized and measurable requirement for an individual to correctly perform a specific job and is a conglomeration or a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior which may be utilized to improve performance, you can use it to better illustrate your own specific capabilities when your write your CV or resume.

When you understand the STAR Routine for competence based interviews which are like the standard interview in that there is often a "background review" based on your CV to get things moving, but after that they ask a set of questions which will be the same for every candidate to determine whether you've got the level of competence or ability in the area they want. Now you see how easy it can be to prepare for this type of job interview.

Return to Main Interview Questions page or go back to the Interview Help section of the site which has been arranged to show you what to do:

Before, during, and after your job interview so that you can prepare for each stage.

When you know better what to do, you will feel more confident about going to the interview and you will handle the interview more confidently as a result. This interview help section gives you information and a checklist to get you ready beforehand; you've got some example interview questions, including what to expect in a competency based interview and how to prepare your answers to the most common job interview questions.

The interview help is laid in sections so that you can jump to wherever you need the most interview training and get help quickly.

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