Competence Commitment Leadership Quadrant
Stages of Career Maturity
Being more senior does not mean having a higher stage of career maturity, but being more senior will increase the chance. This is because career maturity is attained by having as much work experiences as possible in different domains and environments, and in the process gaining diverse exposure and perspectives. However, it is completely possible for a young person who constantly pushes himself or herself to be career matured while a senior person who is always in the comfort zone to be career immatured.
Stage 1 — Competence: These members will be the juniors who have limited working experience but possess high competence in a certain technical area, and fresh graduates usually belong to this stage. The juniors are usually driven by their interest, whereby they will be excited to work on tasks that interest them, but can be jumping from tasks to tasks to try other things that are interesting, so may have limited commitment.
Stage 2 — Commitment: These members will be the experienced ones with some working experience and possess high competence. The experienced ones are driven by their attitude, whereby they understand the business and project needs and be committed to complete the tasks for the team or project. They are highly-dependable who are usually natural leaders leading a small team or domain and are the key members in the team.
Stage 3 — Leadership: These members will be leaders with diverse working experience and possess broad competence across domains. The leaders are driven by a sense of mission, whereby they will be visionary, inspiring people to collaborate together towards a common goal and constantly thinking at the system level to improve team and organisation as a whole. They are the pillars of their teams, defining the culture and setting the direction of the team.
Growing the Team
Besides delivering a quality product, one of the important aspects of Agile Development is to grow the team. In order to grow a person, the first step to identify his or her current stage of career maturity. Hence, “Competence vs Commitment Quadrant” and “Commitment vs Leadership Quadrant” are created to serve as the guiding principles to identify the stage of career maturity. Then “Critical vs Growth Tasks Quadrant” can be used to find suitable tasks to grow the person to the next stage.
Competence vs Commitment Quadrant
Use the quadrant to grow juniors to experienced ones. The following are some example of signs of competence and commitment, to identify which quadrant that the juniors currently belongs to.
Signs of Competence
- Deliver tasks quickly with quality
- Explore and learn new technology quickly on his or her own
- Knowledgable across various technical domains
Signs of Commitment
- Work beyond office hours by choice when needed
- Never break a promise, follow-through and deliver as committed
- Proactive instead of reactive, constantly find ways to overcome challenges
High Competence, High Commitment: The junior is already at the stage of commitment and ready for nurturing to the next stage of leadership.
High Competence, Low Commitment & High Competence, Low Commitment: Find suitable tasks to grow the junior to “High Competence, High Commitment”.
Low Competence, Low Commitment: The junior is not meeting the expectations of the team, which can be due to personal reasons or hiring errors and will need an investigation to understand the root cause.
Commitment vs Leadership Quadrant
Use the quadrant to grow experienced ones to leaders. The following are some example of signs of competence and commitment to identify which quadrant that the experienced ones currently belongs to.
Signs of Commitment (See above)
Signs of Leadership
- Stable emotions, do not lose temper or panic during conflicts or stress
- Able to inspire others, unite people to collaborate towards a common goal
- Plan ahead, anticipate possible scenarios and actively prepare for future
High Competence, High Leadership: The experienced one is already at the stage of leadership and ready to lead teams and drive change in organisations.
High Commitment, Low Leadership & High Commitment, Low Leadership: Find suitable tasks to grow the experienced one to “High Commitment, High Leadership”.
Low Commitment, Low Leadership: The experienced one is not meeting the expectations, which can be due to personal reasons or hiring errors and will need an investigation to understand the root cause.
Conclusion
The capability of the team is crucial for project success, as the quality of the product will be determined by the quality of the team. However, team growth does not occur naturally or by chance, so adequate time and effort must be spent to nurture the team to become self-managing which is the foundation of Agile Development.
