Ley Choon Managerial Competencies Framework
A Learning Guide for Leaders: Navigating the shift from Individual Contributor to Manager.
of the variance in team engagement is accounted for by managers. Your role is the single most influential factor in your team's experience, directly impacting performance, profitability, retention, and culture.
The 10 Core Competencies
The House Analogy
The Essential Competencies are the solid foundation—leading your team. Without them, the structure is unstable.
The Advanced Competencies are the walls and roof—leading within the business. Master the foundation before building higher.
Essential Foundation
The bedrock of effective management, focusing on your immediate team.
Advanced Pillars
Scaling your impact beyond your team to influence the wider organization.
Deep Dive: The 5 Essential Competencies
1. Coaching for Performance & Development
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Helping your team members grow. It involves regular conversations about career goals, providing timely/constructive feedback, and identifying opportunities to develop skills.
Substantiation: Teams with managers who are great coaches demonstrate higher engagement, better performance, and lower turnover. When people feel you are invested in their future, they are more invested in their work.
Examples
- Instead of just giving an answer, you ask, “What are your thoughts on how to approach this?”
- In a 1-on-1, you ask, “What's one skill you'd like to develop this quarter, and how can I support you?”
- Provide specific, behavior-based feedback: “In the client meeting, the way you presented the data was very clear and persuasive.”
How to Practice
- Ask More, Tell Less: In your next 1-on-1, speak only 20% of the time. Use questions (“What's your biggest priority?” “What roadblocks are you facing?”) instead of giving updates.
- Schedule a Career Conversation: Dedicate one 1-on-1 per team member this quarter solely to long-term career aspirations.
- Practice the “SBI” Model: When giving feedback, describe the specific Situation, the observable Behavior, and the Impact it had. Keeps feedback objective.
2. Empowering the Team
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Resisting the urge to micromanage. Delegating effectively—not just tasks, but ownership. Providing right context and support, then getting out of the way.
Substantiation: Fosters loyalty, motivation, innovation, and frees you up for strategic work. Micromanaged employees are 3x more likely to be disengaged.
Examples
- “I trust your judgment on this. Please move forward with the approach you think is best.”
- Clearly defining the desired outcome, but letting the team determine the process.
- Not insisting on being in every meeting or email chain.
- Instead of: “Complete steps A, B, C exactly,” Try: “Here is the desired outcome. You have full ownership. Let's set a check-in for Wednesday.”
How to Practice
- Delegate a Decision: Identify one decision you would normally make this week and delegate it to a team member.
- Define “What” not “How”: For the next kickoff, focus entirely on goals/success metrics; let the team propose execution.
- “Inspect What You Expect”: Be crystal clear on outcome/deadline, but schedule check-ins to offer support, not take back control.
- Ask your team: “Is there anything I'm doing that feels like micromanagement?”
3. Fostering an Inclusive & Supportive Environment
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Creating “psychological safety”—a safe space to speak up, make mistakes, and offer dissenting opinions without fear. Soliciting diverse perspectives and showing genuine concern for people.
Substantiation: Psychological safety is the #1 predictor of high-performing teams (Google research). Safe teams are innovative, engaged, and resilient.
Examples
- “There are no bad ideas in this brainstorm. Let's hear every perspective.”
- Thanking a team member for their courage/perspective when raising a concern, even if you disagree.
- Actively inviting quiet members: “Sarah, we haven't heard from you yet, what are your thoughts?”
- When a mistake happens, focusing on “What can we learn?” rather than “Who is to blame?”
How to Practice
- Model Vulnerability: Admit when you don't know something or made a mistake.
- Run an Inclusivity Check: Consciously track who speaks and who doesn't. Create space for quiet members.
- Set Ground Rules: Co-create team norms for treating each other in discussions.
- Start with Human Connection: Dedicate the first few minutes of meetings to non-work check-ins.
4. Driving Team Results
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Ensuring the team is focused on priorities and equipped to deliver. Setting measurable goals, removing obstacles, and holding the team accountable.
Substantiation: Provides clarity and focus. When employees know what is expected, they are effective. Lack of clear goals leads to confusion and inefficiency.
Examples
- Translating “Increase customer satisfaction” into “Reduce average support ticket response time by 15% this quarter.”
- Starting a meeting with: “Our #1 priority this week is X. What do we need to do to get it done?”
- “I see you're waiting on a decision from another department. Let me follow up on that for you.”
How to Practice
- Use the SMART Framework: Ensure goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Conduct a “Blocker” Session: Dedicate 15 minutes in a meeting to ask: “What is getting in our way?”
- Create a Visible Scoreboard: Use a simple dashboard to track progress against top 2-3 goals.
5. Communicating with Clarity & Purpose
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Communication is the lifeblood of leadership. Sharing information openly (“the why”), listening more than you speak, and adapting style to audience.
Substantiation: Builds trust, prevents misunderstanding, and fosters alignment. Employees who feel heard/informed are more engaged.
Examples
- Proactively sharing relevant updates after a leadership meeting so the team hears it from you first.
- Summarizing to ensure understanding: “So, if I'm hearing you right, your main concern is...”
- Following up verbal conversations with a brief written summary of decisions.
- Putting the phone down and making eye contact when a team member is speaking.
How to Practice
- Practice Active Listening: Goal is to understand, not respond. Summarize by saying, “What I'm hearing is...”
- Over-Communicate the “Why”: Don't just explain the “what.” Always explain how the work connects to larger company goals.
- Ask for Feedback: Ask, “Is there anything about how we communicate as a team that we could improve?”
Deep Dive: The 5 Advanced Competencies
1. Strategic Thinking & Decision Making
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Seeing the forest, not just the trees. Connecting daily work to company vision. Making data-informed decisions, balancing short-term needs with long-term goals.
Substantiation: Provides purpose and direction. Prevents wasted effort on unaligned projects and motivates the team with a compelling vision.
Examples
- “This task is challenging, but critical for achieving our company-wide goal of improving customer retention.”
- When faced with options: “Which gets us closer to our 3-year vision?”
- Allocating resources to a project that aligns with long-term strategy, even if immediate payoff is low.
- Using data on customer patterns to prioritize features.
How to Practice
- Read the Company Strategy: Understand the annual report/strategic plan.
- Justify with Data: Explicitly write down data points used to support your next significant decision.
- Connect the Dots: Draw a line from a team project directly to a specific company goal in your next meeting.
- “Zoom Out” & “Think Ahead”: Ask “What is the 1-year impact?” Block 30 mins weekly to think about industry trends.
2. Building Collaborative Networks
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Breaking down silos. Proactively building relationships across functions, understanding priorities, finding mutually beneficial collaboration, and negotiating win-win outcomes.
Substantiation: No team is an island. Leaders who excel here access more resources, solve complex problems faster, and align with the broader organization.
Examples
- Regularly meeting peers in other departments to share priorities.
- Having a direct contact ready when a cross-team problem arises.
- Creating a joint project team from different functions to tackle a shared objective.
How to Practice
- Map Your Stakeholders: Identify top 3 dependent teams. Meet their managers to understand their priorities.
- Schedule a “Get to Know You”: 30-min chat with a frequent contact, with no agenda other than understanding their world.
- Be a Broker: Connect two people from different teams who would benefit from knowing each other.
- Share Credit: Publicly thank and credit other teams when a collaborative project succeeds.
3. Championing Innovation & Change
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Challenging the status quo, encouraging experimentation, and navigating the uncertainty of organizational change.
Substantiation: Business constantly evolves. Managers who lead through change create resilient, adaptable teams that provide a competitive edge.
Examples
- “That's an interesting idea. How could we run a small experiment to test it?”
- During a re-org: Acknowledging concerns, clearly communicating what is known and unknown.
- Framing a new software rollout as an opportunity to improve efficiency, not just a mandate.
- Celebrating “intelligent failures” as learning opportunities.
How to Practice
- Run a “Kill a Stupid Rule” Session: Identify one process that slows work down without value, and advocate to change it.
- Acknowledge the Human Side: Address feelings/concerns before logistics when announcing change.
- Communicate the “Why”: Become an expert on the reasons for change to answer questions clearly.
- Pilot a New Idea: Carve out time for the team to experiment safely.
4. Applying Business Acumen
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Understanding how the company makes money. Managing budgets, knowing competitors, understanding customer needs, and connecting team work to financial health.
Substantiation: Leads to commercially-minded decisions aligned with financial health. Allows you to advocate for resources by demonstrating ROI.
Examples
- “I'd love to invest in this software, but given constraints, we need a strong business case first.”
- “Our competitor launched a new feature. Let's discuss the impact on our roadmap.”
- Explaining how improving quality directly impacts customer churn and revenue.
How to Practice
- Review Your Team's Budget: Have your manager walk you through your team's P&L.
- Connect Work to Numbers: Identify at least one business metric (cost savings, revenue, time) impacted by your next major project.
- Talk to Frontline Staff: Take a project/operations member to lunch to hear what clients are saying on the ground.
- Read Industry News: Spend 15 minutes weekly on a key publication for your industry.
5. Managing Stakeholder Relationships
Elaboration & Substantiation
Elaboration: Building long-term partnerships with external stakeholders (customers, suppliers, regulators). Anticipating trends and positioning your team as a trusted partner.
Substantiation: Strong external relationships are a competitive advantage leading to new opportunities, smoother operations, and valuable market insights.
Examples
- Proactively meeting a key customer to understand evolving challenges before a problem is reported.
- Sending regular, concise updates to key stakeholders on project progress.
- Anticipating a concern and addressing it before they ask.
- Collaborating with a supplier to develop a more efficient delivery process.
How to Practice
- Create a Stakeholder Map: Map key stakeholders by level of influence and interest for an important project.
- Identify Their “WIIFM”: Ask “What's In It For Me?” from their perspective, and tailor communication to their interests.
- Establish a Communication Cadence: Define a regular schedule (e.g., bi-weekly email) for updates.