Success Factors

What are success factors?
A success factor is any knowledge, skill, trait, motive, attitude, value or other personal characteristic that is essential to perform the job or role and that differentiates solid from superior performance. There are two types of success factors:

Behavioral:
These are the personal characteristics (i.e., skills, traits, motives or attitudes and values which relate to self-image) that describe how we perform the job or role, and are what differentiates superior from average performance. They describe what superior performers think or do more often, in more situations, and with better results than average performers.

Technical:
These are the technical knowledge and skill we need to perform a job or role; they describe what we need to know or be able to do to perform the job or role, and are essential to effective performance.

The behaviors listed under each success factor begin with the most basic and move toward increasingly more complex behaviors. The target behavior level is where high performing managers and professionals at Buffalo State perform most of the time. Below the target is the expected behavior(s) of all managers and professionals at Buffalo State.

The focus of this assessment is on professional development, not evaluation and it is essential to be as honest and objective as possible. It is assumed that everyone can benefit from development at some level. Some employees may need to acquire behaviors or skills to perform effectively on the job while others may want to refine or improve already existing skills.

Practical use of success factors
What is important about all of this is that we can identify what behaviors individuals demonstrate when they are performing at superior levels, regardless of the underlying reasons. With this information, we can build templates, or behavioral success factors so that we all can see what superior performance looks like. This helps us understand more clearly what we can do to achieve superior levels of performance.

Why use success factors?
Knowing that superior performance is so valuable, corporate leaders, managers, and human resource professionals have typically searched for qualities such as "initiative" and "communication skills" in the people they hired. However, two things remained uncertain until recently: how to address these qualities and whether these qualities were actually related to superior performance on the job. Using a competency-based approach and developing behavioral success factors are the keys to defining, assessing and linking such qualities to job performance.

Benefits of using success factors
Success factors can be used to:

Help people identify more clearly what behaviors they need to demonstrate to be successful in the job or role (i.e., commit to a personal development plan).
Help managers be more objective and provide the appropriate coaching to help employees develop.
Help the organization to recruit and select superior performers.
Help individuals be successful in their jobs and help the organization differentiate itself in the eyes of its key stakeholders (e.g., customers, shareholders, etc.).

Using Success Factors:
There are two success factor assessment worksheets: managers and professionals. The behaviors listed under each success factor begin with the most basic and move toward increasingly more complex behaviors. The target behavior level targeted behavior is where high-performing managers and professionals at Buffalo State perform most of the time. Below the target is the expected behavior(s) expected behavior of all managers and professionals at Buffalo State.

Worksheet Instructions:

Select the appropriate success factor assessment worksheet to download: manager or professional. Review the definition of each success factor and the corresponding behaviors. Check yes or no for each behavior to indicate whether the manager/professional exhibits this behavior most of the time. Any of the behaviors checked “no”; particularly those below the target level are potential areas for development. The Specialty Expertise section is on the professional assessment only. List the knowledge/skills necessary for the specific job prior to checking yes or no for the behavior levels.
Select 1-2 of those that are most critical to the current position or relate most closely to desired future growth.
Develop a professional development plan using the performance program form. The behavior levels may be used as the basis for a goal statement.

Both the supervisor and employee may complete these steps and use the results when developing the professional development section of the performance program.

Technical and Behavioral Success Factors

The relationship between technical and behavioral success factors is an interactive one. That is, overall performance is the result of having both the needed job knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge effectively to fulfill the expectations of the job or role.

Technical:

knowledge (e.g., product knowledge)
skill (e.g., financial analysis)

Behavioral:

skill (e.g., problem solving)
social role: how you want others to see you, your "outer-self", the image you project (e.g., technical expert)
self-image: what is important to you, your "inner-self", importance of your attitudes and values (e.g., customer focus, self-confidence)
traits(e.g., self-control, attention to detail and quality)
motives(e.g., personal achievement, power, affiliation)

One of the easiest ways to show the relationship of the components of the success factors is to picture an iceberg. Above the waterline is the technical knowledge a person has about something. Closer to the waterline is skill, i.e., the ability to perform a physical or technical task, such as financial analysis, or a cognitive task, such as problem solving. It is relatively easy to see people performing the physical tasks, and, consequently, to assess them. Those skills closer to, or just below, the waterline are more difficult to assess. For example, with problem solving you can see the solution, but you cannot necessarily see the thought process.

Social Role
Social role relates to how we project ourselves, our outer self, the image we want to project. For example, some doctors may project the image of EXPERT by focusing on how much they know about a particular specialty or how much skill they have at a specific function. Others may project the image of HELPER by focusing on what they can do for others. How we choose to project ourselves to others influences where we put our emphasis in performing our roles.

Self-Image
Self-image gets at our attitudes and values and relates to the feelings we have about ourselves, and what is important to us as individuals, our inner-self. For example, if a person has an attitude or value that serving customers is important, that person may be more likely to answer repeated requests for information and assistance than someone else who doesn't share the same attitudes and values. Another example of self-image is a person's level of self-confidence.

Traits
Traits are the characteristics or consistent/habitual ways of responding in a variety of situations such as attention to detail and quality and self-control. Certain jobs or roles require certain traits. For example, if the job or role involves defusing highly emotional situations and therefore requires a great deal of self-control, you would look for someone who consistently demonstrates that trait when selecting candidates.

Motives
Motives are deep-rooted and formed early in life. They are the things a person consistently thinks about or wants that cause them to take action. For example, someone who is highly achievement-motivated will always strive to do a better job. Someone who is highly social and is driven by an affiliation motive may be better suited to a role that involves dealing with people as their emphasis will be on building and maintaining positive relationships.