How to Leverage Lominger Competencies to Improve Leadership Development

Understanding and implementing Lominger competencies can significantly enhance both personal development and organizational effectiveness, making it a valuable tool for modern businesses.

This guide explores the 67 competencies within the framework, highlights the core principles and benefits, and discusses the challenges and considerations for effective implementation.

What are the 67 Lominger competencies?

Lominger competencies are part of a competency framework developed by Lominger Limited, a company co-founded by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, experts in management and executive development. This framework is widely used in human resources and organizational development to assess and develop leadership and managerial capabilities.

The Lominger competencies are designed to be integrated into various HR processes, including recruiting, onboarding, and succession planning. As a result, Lominger competencies can be a reference point for employee development and evaluations, thus enabling competency-based performance management.

List of Lominger competencies, clustered

There are 67 Lominger competencies. They are grouped into the following factors and clusters:

Factor 1: Strategic skills

Cluster A: Understanding the business

• Business acumen

• Functional/technical skills

• Technical learning

Cluster B – Making complex decisions

• Decision quality

• Intellectual horsepower

• Learning on the fly

• Problem-solving

Cluster C – Creating the new and different

• Dealing with ambiguity

• Creativity

• Innovation management

• Perspective

• Strategic agility

Factor 2: Operating skills

Cluster D – Keeping on point

• Timely decision making

• Priority setting

Cluster E – Getting organized

• Organizing

• Planning

• Time management

Cluster F – Getting work done through others

• Delegation

• Developing direct reports and others

• Directing others

• Informing

• Managing and measuring work

Cluster G – Managing work processes

• Process management

• Managing through systems

• Total work systems

Factor 3: Courage

Cluster H – Dealing with trouble

• Command skills

• Conflict management

• Confronting direct reports

• Managerial courage

• Standing alone

Cluster I – Making tough people calls

• Hiring and staffing

• Sizing up people

Factor 4: Energy and drive

Cluster J – Focusing on the bottom line

• Action-oriented

• Perseverance

• Drive for results

Factor 5: Organizational positional skills

Cluster K – Being organizationally savvy

• Organizational agility

• Political savvy

Cluster L – Communicating effectively

• Presentation skills

• Written communications

Cluster M – Managing up

• Career ambition

• Comfort around higher management

Factor 6: Personal and interpersonal skills

Cluster N – Relating skills

• Approachability

• Interpersonal savvy

Cluster O – Caring about others

• Caring about direct reports

• Compassion

Cluster P – Managing diverse relationships

• Boss relationships

• Customer focus

• Managing diversity

• Fairness to direct reports

• Peer relationships

• Understanding others

Cluster Q – Inspiring others

• Motivating others

• Negotiating

• Building effective teams

• Managing vision and purpose

Cluster R – Acting with honor and character

• Ethics and values

• Integrity and trust

Cluster S – Being open and receptive

• Composure

• Humor

• Listening

• Patience

• Personal disclosure

Cluster T – Demonstrating personal flexibility

• Dealing with paradox

• Personal learning

• Self-development

• Self-knowledge

Cluster U – Balancing work/life

• Work/life balance

These competencies can be developed and honed through targeted personal development activities, feedback, and on-the-job experience. They serve as a roadmap for individuals seeking to enhance their leadership capabilities and organizations aiming to cultivate strong leaders.

Core principles of Lominger competencies

The Lominger competency model is based on five core principles:

1. Research-based: The competencies in the Lominger model are derived from research on what behaviors distinguish outstanding leaders from average ones

2. Comprehensive: The model covers a wide range of competencies (67 in total) considered critical for effective leadership and talent development

3. Development-oriented: The Lominger model focuses on developing potential and addressing gaps in competency through actionable suggestions for development and improvement for each competency

4. Behaviorally anchored: Each competency is defined by specific behaviors that can be observed, measured, and related to current and long-term employee performance. These help you to pinpoint training and development needs that are of high priority

5. Scalable and flexible: The model can be adapted and scaled for different organizational levels, from entry-level to executive roles

Lominger competency model vs. other competency frameworks

Three key elements differentiate the Lominger model from other leadership competency frameworks:

• Complexity and detail: The Lominger model is highly granular, with many competencies providing a detailed leadership development framework. Other models prioritize simplicity and ease of understanding

• Complimentary tools: Lominger offers additional tools, such as the Career Architect Development Planner and the Lominger VOICES 360º Feedback System, which enable more effective leadership development initiatives

• Types of competencies included: Other models may focus on a smaller set of core leadership competencies, which are more generic or industry-specific and could vary in how they integrate with organizational strategies

How to leverage Lominger competencies

Effectively leveraging Lominger competencies can transform your organization’s talent management and leadership development approach. Integrating these competencies into various HR processes allows you to create a consistent and comprehensive framework that enhances recruitment, training, performance appraisals, and continuous learning.

Discover five practical strategies to seamlessly incorporate Lominger competencies into your organization’s operations, fostering a culture of growth and aligning employee development with strategic business goals.

Integrate competencies into HR processes

Incorporate Lominger competencies into your recruitment, onboarding, and succession planning processes to ensure a consistent and comprehensive approach to talent management.

Use these competencies to define job descriptions, assess candidate suitability, and guide new hires through their initial development stages.

Develop customized training programs

Design training programs that target specific Lominger competencies. Use these competencies to identify skill gaps and create personalized employee development plans. This targeted approach ensures training efforts focus on areas that will have the most significant impact on performance.

Implement competency-based performance appraisals

Shift from traditional performance reviews to competency-based appraisals. Evaluate employees based on their demonstration of key competencies, providing clear feedback and actionable development suggestions. This method promotes a more objective and holistic evaluation of employee performance.

Foster continuous learning and development

Encourage a culture of continuous learning by providing resources and opportunities for employees to develop their competencies. Offer workshops, e-learning modules, and mentorship programs that align with the Lominger framework to support ongoing personal and professional growth.

Align competencies with organizational goals

Ensure that the competencies you focus on are aligned with your organization’s strategic objectives. Doing so can better support your company’s mission and vision while enhancing employee engagement and performance.

Limitations of Lominger competencies: The unseen hurdles

The model can be overly complex for some organizations

With 67 competencies to consider, the model can be overwhelming for some organizations to implement and manage effectively. Employees and managers may find it challenging to focus on so many areas, leading to diluted efforts and less targeted development.

You must also ensure that your people receive the necessary training to understand every competency. As a result, smaller organizations or those with limited HR capabilities may find it challenging to allocate the resources needed to utilize the model fully.

Why one-size-fits-all doesn’t work: Customizing competencies to organizational cultures

One major critique of the Lominger framework is its potential lack of cultural sensitivity. In today’s globalized business environment, where diverse cultures interact, the framework might need to consider these differences more.

Some leadership qualities Lominger emphasizes might not work well in all cultural contexts. For instance, global leaders may face significant challenges managing diverse employees and adjusting to new values and culturesc ompared to domestic leaders.

Organizations using the Lominger framework should consider adding competencies such as cultural sensitivity to ensure their leadership development efforts are more culturally inclusive and effective.

Reevaluating Lominger competencies to address shifting workplace dynamics and technologies

Like job descriptions, competency models must be regularly evaluated and updated as needs dictate. The world of work has changed dramatically, and it will continue to do so.

From work-from-anywhere models and increased global competition to ongoing technology innovations, one does not have to look far for evidence of significant change. However, the approach to using Lominger competencies has stayed relatively stable.

In light of these profound shifts, it is imperative for organizations to regularly revisit and adapt their competency models to align with the contemporary demands of the workforce and the evolving business landscape.

Think about AI entering the HR world. There are new ways AI affects performance management or learning and development, just to mention a few examples. Your competency models should keep up with technological breakthroughs.

Lominger career stallers and stoppers: 19 Behaviors that can derail any career

Lominger career stallers, part of the Lominger competency framework, are behaviors or attributes that can hinder an individual’s career progression. These are the flip side of the competencies, essentially the pitfalls that can derail success.

Here are the 19 Lominger career stallers and stoppers, grouped by two factors and sub-clusters:

Trouble with people

Cluster 1 – Doesn’t relate well to others

• Unable to adapt to differences

• Blocked personal learner

• Defensiveness

• Insensitive to others

Cluster 2: – Self-centered

• Overly ambitious

• Arrogant

• Betrayal of trust

• Lack of composure

• Lack of ethics and values

• Political missteps

Cluster 3: – Doesn’t inspire or build talent

• Failure to build a team

• Failure to staff effectively

• Overmanaging

Trouble with results

Cluster 1 – Too narrow

• Key skill deficiencies

• Non-strategic

• Overdependence on an advocate

• Overdependence on a single skill

Cluster 2 – Doesn’t deliver results

• Poor administrator

• Performance problems

How your organization can use the 19 career stallers

1. Self-awareness and development: These behaviors and attributes help individuals recognize potential areas of weakness or blind spots in their professional behavior that could impede their growth.

2. Performance improvement: Use career stallers to provide targeted feedback and development opportunities, helping employees overcome these challenges and improve performance.

3. Succession planning: You can better prepare employees for future leadership roles by identifying and addressing career stallers, ensuring a more capable and versatile talent pipeline.

4. Retention: Addressing career stallers can increase job satisfaction and employee retention, as individuals feel the organization invests in their personal and professional growth.

5. Cultural alignment: Recognizing and managing career stallers helps maintain a positive work culture by mitigating behaviors that can disrupt teamwork and collaboration.

Effectively measure, manage, and build competencies with Engage

In a fast-paced business world, the key to organizational success lies in a team that’s skilled, adaptable, innovative, and equipped to handle challenges and uncertainties. Yet, in many organizations, job competencies are often hastily assembled, lacking clarity and direction. Engage transforms this narrative with our robust talent management solution:

• Clear career pathing: Create competency-based career paths for employees to have full transparency of what is expected for every role and seniority and give your people a structured and transparent career growth path

• Feedback for growth: Leverage competency-based 360-degree feedback to help your people understand where they excel and where they need to improve

• Bridging skill gaps: Identify and bridge individual skill gaps with personalized development plans and guided conversations

• Targeted learning: Assign internal and external training courses to ace each competency. There are thousands of learning resources on Engage with competency tags. Your people will find suitable training materials based on their roles and skill profiles

• The Deel platform comes with HRIS capabilities, at no additional cost.

Talk to our experts about creating a custom competency model for your organization