Core Competencies

---

At the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, the contribution of employees towards the attainment of the corporate strategic and operational objectives is essential. For this reason, we value a large number of core competencies. In order for you to better acquaint yourself with the definitions, a list has been prepared for your information.

Achievement Orientation
Achievement Orientation is a concern for working well or for surpassing a standard of excellence or goal. The standard may be one's own past performance (striving for improvement); an objective measure (results orientation); outperforming others (competitiveness); challenging goals one has set; or even what anyone has ever done (innovation).

Analytical Thinking
Analytical Thinking is the ability to break complex problems apart into their component pieces, makes systematic comparisons of the different features or aspects of the problems and see logical cause and effect relationships.

Business Insight
Business Insight is the ability to keep abreast of changes in economic, political, regulatory and technical trends that can affect the corporation.

Client Focus
Client Focus implies a desire to help or serve customers, to meet their needs. It means focusing one's efforts on discovering and meeting the customer or client's needs.

Conceptual Thinking
Conceptual Thinking is the ability to identify patterns or connections between situations that are not obviously related, and to identify key or underlying issues in complex situations. It includes using creative, conceptual or inductive reasoning.

Concern for Order and Quality
Concern for Order and Quality reflects an underlying drive to reduce uncertainty in the surrounding environment. It is expressed in such forms as monitoring and checking work or information, insisting on clarity of roles and functions, etc.

Concern for Safety
Concern for Safety is acting in a manner which ensures the safety of others, including a concern for reducing risks and hazards in the environment.

Concern for the Customer Interaction
Concern for the Customer Interaction is an ability to see things from both the customer's and the organization's viewpoints and a willingness to consider both even when they conflict, in coming to decisions.

Developing Others
Developing Others involves a genuine intent to foster the long-term learning or development of others with an appropriate level of need analysis and other thought or effort. Its focus is on the developmental intent and effect rather than on a formal role of training.

Directness
Directness is the intent and ability to set standards and make others comply with one's wishes, with the long-term good of the organization in mind. The tone ranges from firm and directive to demanding.

Enhancing Efficiency
Enhancing Efficiency is the ability to find ways of improving the effective use of resources to reduce costs, improve benefits and achieve the desired results within budget.

Expertise
Expertise includes the motivation to expand and use technical knowledge or to distribute work-related knowledge to others.

Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to adapt to and work effectively within a variety of situations, and with various individuals or groups. It entails understanding and appreciating different and opposing perspectives on an issue, adapting one's approach as the requirements of a situation change, and changing or easily accepting changes in one's own organization or job requirements.

Impact and Influence
Impact and Influence is the intention and ability to take actions that persuade, convince, influence others in order to get them to go along with/support/adopt the speaker's agenda.

Information Seeking
Information Seeking is the tendency to search widely for information outside the normal boundaries of the job or business. It may include "digging" or pressing for exact information; resolution of discrepancies by asking a series of questions; or less-focused environmental "scanning" for potential opportunities or miscellaneous information that may be of future use.

Listening and Responding
Listening and Responding is the ability to accurately listen and understand, and then respond appropriately when interacting with individuals and groups.

Organizational Awareness
Organizational Awareness is the ability to understand and learn the power relationships in one's own organization or in other organizations. It includes the ability to accurately predict the affect of new events or situations on the individuals in the organization(s), in particular, the key decision makers.

Organizational Commitment
Organizational Commitment is the ability and willingness to align one's own behavior with the needs, priorities and goals of the organization. It involves acting in ways that promote organizational goals or meet organizational needs. It may appear as putting an organizational mission before one's own preferences.

Planning and Initiative
Planning and Initiative is a bias for taking action, proactively doing things and not simply thinking about future actions. The time frame of this scale moves from completing past or current projects to acting on future opportunities or problems. Formal strategic planning is not included in this competency.

Self-Confidence
Self-Confidence is a belief in one's capability to accomplish a task and select an effective approach to a task in increasingly challenging circumstances.

Self-Development
Self-Development involves striving for personal improvement by taking action for own personal development.

Sense of Urgency
Sense of Urgency is a propensity to take action promptly rather than waiting to see what happens or simply planning what should be done. It includes the ability to determine quickly and accurately which issues require attention and which can wait.

Strategic Initiative
Strategic Initiative is the ability to identify problems or opportunities and take quick action to address them in order to maximize advantage to the organization.

Team Leadership
Team Leadership is the intention to take a role as leader and the desire to lead a group or team to accomplish things. The "team" here should be understood broadly as any group in which the person takes on a leadership role.

Teamwork and Cooperation
Teamwork and Cooperation implies the intention to work cooperatively with others, to be part of a team, to work together, as opposed to working separately or competitively. For this competency to be effective, the intention should be genuine. Teamwork and Cooperation may be considered whenever the subject is a member of a group of people functioning as a team.