Skilled: Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others.
Unskilled: Slow to act on an opportunity; may be overly methodical, a perfectionist, or risk adverse; may procrastinate; may not set very challenging goals; may lack confidence to act; may know what to do but hesitates to do it; may not be motivated; may be bored with the work or burned out.

 

 

Skilled: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
Unskilled: Not agile or versatile in learning to deal with first time or unusual problems; may not analyze problems carefully or search for multiple clues and parallels; may be afraid to take a chance on the unknown; learns new things slowly; may be stuck in historical, tried and true methods, uncomfortable with ambiguity and quick to jump to a solution; doesn’t look under rocks, just sticks to the obvious; looks for the simplest explanation too soon; gives up too soon and accepts a marginal solution; functions on the surface, doesn’t go deep.

 

Skilled: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; seldom gives up before finishing, especially in the face of resistance or setbacks.
Unskilled: Gives up too soon or moves on to something that’s going better; doesn’t push hard enough to get things done; doesn’t go back with different strategies for the third and fourth try; may take rejection too personally; may hesitate to push when met with conflict, disagreement or attacks; may agree too early just to get it over with; may compromise for less than the original goal or objective; may simply not want to take charge and be out front.

 

Skilled: Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
Unskilled: Not a disciplined problem solver; may be stuck in the past, wed to what worked before; many times has to come back and rework the problem a second time; may be a fire-ready-aim type; may get impatient and jump to conclusions too soon; may not stop to define and analyze the problem; doesn’t look under rocks; may have a set bag of tricks and pull unfit solutions from it; may miss the complexity of the issue and force fit it to what he/she is most comfortable with; unlikely to come up with the second and better solution, ask penetrating questions, or see hidden patterns.

 

Skilled: Knows how businesses work; knowledgeable in current and possible future policies, practices, trends, and information affecting his/her business and organization; knows the competition; is aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.
Unskilled: Doesn't understand how businesses work; not knowledgeable and up-to-date about current and future policies, trends and information affecting his/her business and organization; doesn't know the competition; is unaware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.

 

Skilled: Can maneuver through complex political situations effectively and quietly; is sensitive to how people and organizations function; anticipates where the land mines are and plans his/her approach accordingly; views corporate politics as a necessary part of organizational life and works to adjust to that reality; is a maze-bright person.
Unskilled: Doesn't know how to navigate smoothly and quietly through political waters; says and does things that cause political problems; doesn't understand how to deal with not invented here and territory protection; rejects politics and may view self as apolitical; others might see this as naïve; may not deal with upper management persuasively; may be impatient with political process and make procedural errors; may be too direct and not consider impact on others; may not project out consequences of his/ her actions well.

 

Skilled: Is effective in a variety of formal presentation settings: one-on-one, small and large groups, with peers, direct reports, and bosses; is effective both inside and outside the organization, on both cool data and hot and controversial topics; commands attention and can manage group process during the presentation; can change tactics midstream when something isn't working.
Unskilled: Not a skilled presenter in varying situations; may be shy; may be disorganized, presentations lack focus; may have a flat or grating style; doesn't listen to audience; may have personal idiosyncrasies and habits that get in the way; may be unprepared for or unable to handle tough questions; may always present the same way, not adjusting to audiences; may lose his/her cool during hot debate; may be nervous, even scared when speaking.

 

Skilled: Maintains a conscious balance between work and personal life so that one doesn't dominate the other; is not one dimensional; knows how to attend to both; gets what he/she wants from both.
Unskilled: Lacks balance between work and personal life; overdoes one at the harmful expense of the other; may be a workaholic; may be bored off-work or can't relax; may be a poor time manager and priority setter; may just react; can't turn off one area of life and fully concentrate on the other; can't keep multiple and mixed priorities going at one time; carries troubles from one area of life into the other; can only seem to manage one or the other.