Leadership Competency Guide

Iris Leadership Competency Framework

❖ Thought ❖ Results
1. Customer Focus 9. Drives Results
2. Strategic Mindset
3. Business Insights
4. Cultivates Innovation

❖ People ❖ Self
5. Drives vision and purpose 10. Courage
6. Communicates effectively 11. Manages Ambiguity
7. Collaborates 12. Being resilient
8. Builds Effective Teams
Terminologies used in this Guide

• Skilled: Skilled definitions provide a list of examples that show what “skilled” looks like for a
competency.

• Talented: definitions describe what excelling in this competency looks like.

• Less Skilled: Less skilled definitions provide a list of examples that show what being weaker in
this competency looks like.

• Overused skill: definitions provide a list of examples that describe when skills in competency are
overused.
Customer Focus
Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.
Skilled
• Gains insight into customer
needs.
• Identifies opportunities that
benefit the customer.
• Builds and delivers
solutions that meet
customer expectations.
• Establishes and maintains
effective customer
relationships.
Talented
• Anticipates customer needs
and provides services that
are beyond customer
expectations.
• Uses customer insights to
drive and guide the
development of new
offerings.
• Serves as a strategic
partner to build, grow, and
maintain profitable and
long-lasting relationships
with key accounts.
Less Skilled
• Is unaware of customer
expectations.
• Acts on incomplete or
inaccurate understanding of
customer needs.
• Conducts work activities
from an internal, operational
standpoint.
• Fails to build effective
relationships with key
customers.
Overused skill
• Prioritizes information about
customers over other
important business realities.
•
• In the efforts to satisfy
customers, takes liberties
with the organization’s
policies and procedures.
• Becomes too close to
customers; makes promises
to customers that the
organization is unable to
keep.
Customer Focus
Possible causes of lower skill:
• Self-centered.
• Shy, afraid of transacting with new people.
• Lacks self-confidence.
• Doesn’t hear feedback.
• Poor listener.
• Defensive in the face of criticism.
• Poor time management; too busy.
Tips to develop Customer focus:
• Looking to delight the customer?
Try to anticipate their need for your products and services by:
o Meeting with your internal or external customers regularly.
o Create personal connections.
o Ask customers for feedback. Solicit their ideas.
o Delivery in a shorter time or add value to what they ordered.
• Not sure what customers want or expect?
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask:
o What kind of turnaround time would you tolerate?
o Price you are willing to pay
o Your top priorities
• Disconnected from customers?
Keep in high-quality touch:
o Recognize the difference between convenience for the customer and
convenience for you.
o Connecting customers with the right person in the minimum number of steps.
Customer Focus
Tips to develop Customer focus: Tips to develop Customer focus:
• Don’t be defensive
Be prepared for customer complaints. Be ready for the good
news and the bad news.
o Change your mental frame about customer complaints:
customers who complain are still engaged, which means
you still have a chance to turn them around
o Vocal customers will usually complain more than
compliment. Make sense of it by looking for themes.
o Are there consistent messages you are hearing from
various customers? Where do you see opportunities to
develop?
Customer Focus
Example:
Since 1994, Amazon has grown to become one of the most widely respected online retailers. What sets the company apart?
Relentless customer focus. CEO, Jeff Bezos, believes customers will always be interested in low costs, big selection, and
fast delivery. Everything is designed to address those customer interests. Amazon creates the ultimate customer experience
with a website that is clear, simple, and easy to navigate. Filters help customers quickly find the products they are looking
for. And as they shop, through intricate algorithms, they provide data that will inform suggestions for future customers.
Amazon is able to recommend products to customers that they had never even thought of purchasing.

So committed is Bezos to customer satisfaction, that approximately 80% of the measurable goals used to track performance
relate specifically to the customer, including focus on what customers don’t want to happen—delays, products out of stock,
defects. Measures are in place to make them as rare as possible.

The result? Amazon has been the top online retailer in customer satisfaction for years and is repeatedly in the top 10 among
all companies. Since its initial public offering in 1997, the company’s stock price has risen from a modest US$18 per share to
US$300+ per share in 2014.
Thank you