Mike Pedler,John Burgoryne and I are preparing a new edition of A Manager's Guide to Self-Development. The current edition has a section referring to the MCI Standards (pages 28/29).
We want to decide whether or not to keep this in. It would be very useful to hear from people who either (a)use them and find them helpful; (b) use them but find them unhelpful; (c) don't use them (d) have never heard of them. In all cases except the last some brief details would be useful!
Thanks TomB
Tom Boydell
2 Responses
MCI
I have tried to use the MCI standards personally to improve my management and have found the approach limiting and too prescriptive. The competencies do not fit my situation and trying to force fit them doesn’t work.
The wording , although clear, is uninspiring. The whole thing feels like it points towards ‘just’ competence, rather than excellence or superior performance. If it were up to me, I’d give them a wide birth and leave them out.
Garry Platt
garry.platt@wgrange.com
Comments on MCI Standards
Criticism for MCI centres on issues like:
*management is a complex, holistic activity which cannot be reduced to discrete managerial competences
*management encompasses moral and ethical resposibilities difficult to reduce to competences
*management is dynamic requiring setting of own personal tasks
*management is a flexible discipline, adapted to different circumstances
*fixed standards in MCI do not allow for differences in individual approach to situations
*MCI standards are a ‘collective’ tool not easily adapted to individual application
*MCI standards do not easily take account of ‘soft’ skills like creativity, assertiveness, which are not easily observed or measured in an objective fashion.
That said…MCI standards are on the whole adaptable to forming a personal set of standards applicable to a wide range of skills and circumstance, but it does require thought! See the standards as a tool for developing self assessment techniques, “what you could do, rather than what you’re expected to do”. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the standards.
Kind regards
Jon Seaton
mailto:editor@hrzone.co.uk