Skill and competency models often focus narrowly on what is needed for work or a profession. But this is too narrow a perspective. We are more than the skills we need for work, and the work that we do requires more than those skills. A holistic approach can reveal more or our potential and make it easier to find the people we need to be working with.

Skill and competency models are generally seen as an organizational tool. They are thought of as a way to organize information about skills and competencies and align them with the organization to support skill gap analysis or career pathing. As individuals take more control more their careers, skill and competency models can become more personalized and a tool fo individuals and teams.

Skills have been described as the new currency of business. Understanding skills has become an important skillset in its own right. One of the best ways to understand a person or a team’s skills is the skill interview. This is a structured approach that leads to a coded transcript that can be used in many ways in introducing skills.