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CHAPTER

3

The AMA Management

Development Competency

Model

Knowing and Managing Yourself

W

e start with competencies in the category of knowing and manag-

ing yourself, because if an individual cannot master most of these

competencies, he will likely never be trusted to manage others or to

manage the business. In the category of “knowing and managing your-

self,” the competencies defined in the AMA model for individual pro-

fessionals are displayed in Table 3.1.

We will first define each competency and then illustrate each with

sample behaviors to further clarify each competency and to demonstrate

at which level (individual professional, first-level manager, mid-level

manager, or functional manager) each competency becomes important

to success. The full AMA competency model, with illustrative behaviors

TABLE 3.1 Competencies for Knowing and Managing Yourself

• Emotional Intelligence/Self-Awareness

• Self-Confidence

• Self-Development

• Building Trust and Personal Accountability

• Resilience and Stress Tolerance

• Action Orientation

• Time Management

• Flexibility and Agility

• Critical and Analytical Thinking

• Creative Thinking

and the levels at which each behavior becomes important, can be found

in this book’s appendix.

Emotional Intelligence/Self-Awareness

AMA defines this competency as analyzing and recognizing one’s own

strengths and weaknesses, attitudes, and feelings. An employee with this

competence maintains a clear, realistic understanding of her goals, capa-

bilities, and limitations. She seeks feedback about her effectiveness and

makes changes in response to that feedback. She is attuned to her inner

feelings, recognizing how these feelings affect her behavior and job per-

formance. She expresses her feelings and reactions appropriately.

Illustrative Behavior 1: Proactively solicits both positive and

constructive feedback on his or her performance.

Illustrative Behavior 2: Adjusts his or her behavior in re-

sponse to feedback.

At all levels, a person with this competency becomes self-aware by

continuously asking for feedback on his performance, whether that be

job performance, performance as a team member or leader, or in man-

agerial duties, to better understand his effects on the people with whom

he works, and to adjust his behavior to improve working relationships

with peers, managers, and peers. This sensitivity is a key element in

emotional intelligence.

Illustrative Behavior 3: Recognizes feelings and concerns

heard in conversation to address the other person’s expressed

and underlying needs.

Emotional intelligence also requires that the employee, at all levels,

recognizes the explicit and tacit feelings of others—employees, man-

agers, and peers. Emotional intelligence is not just about managing

your own feelings, but also about recognizing and reacting to the feel-

ings of others.

50 AMA Guide to Management Development

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Illustrative Behavior 4: Understands his or her personal pref-

erences for making decisions, solving problems, and working

with others; recognizes when his or her preferred style may not

be the most effective approach given the situation.

Every person, at every level of the organization, has an inherent style

of interacting with other people. In various seminars given by the AMA,

we use a variety of instruments to help people recognize their personal

styles, or ways they interact with other people. By learning your own

style and recognizing the styles of others with whom you work, you can

better understand the effects of your style on others, and of their styles on

you, and work to flex your style to improve working relationships. This is

an important competency at all levels of the organization.

Illustrative Behavior 5: Asks questions that create an atmo-

sphere in which the other person feels comfortable discussing

the situation and sharing concerns.

Illustrative Behavior 6: Expresses his or her feelings and reac-

tions in a calm, clear manner.

Illustrative Behavior 7: Communicates tactfully even when

others are unhappy or confused.

An employee with good emotional intelligence can control his own

emotions and related behaviors and can recognize the feelings of others

and adjust his behavior to keep both himself and others calm in tense

situations by expressing himself in a calm, collected manner and by

helping others to express their concerns similarly. This is an important

competency at all levels of the organization, perhaps becoming more

important as the employee climbs the management ladder.

Illustrative Behavior 8: Coaches others on the importance of

self-awareness and how to become more self-aware.

As important as behaviors 1 through 7 are for the individual pro-

fessional, when you progress up the management ladder, it becomes

Chapter 3

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AMA Model: Knowing and Managing Yourself 51

© 2008, AMACOM, a division of the American Management Association

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