Executives

Competency Level Denitions

PREREQUISITE This level of performance is recognized as having the basic elements required for the competency. However, it is not yet of sucient strength to meet IBMs high standard or have the necessary impact on others and the organization. A development plan should be implemented to raise this individuals competency to IBMs high standard. D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E There is consensus that the level of performance this individual shows is capable and eective, with room to grow. STRENGTH The level of performance is widely recognized as at the high standard for IBM and demonstrates solid performance, clear expertise and consistent strength. E X T R AO R D I N A R Y S T R E N G T H The level of performance this individual shows is considered the highest standard. There is consensus that this individual has an Extraordinary Strength in this competency. This person could be referenced as a role model to aspire to when coaching others on how to improve this competency.

Client Partnering
Outstanding IBM Leaders establish strong and long-lasting partnerships with their clients (internal and external) based on trust, credibility, and relevance, and are energized by their clients success. They know their clients industry and business needs in depth, as well as have a deep appreciation of how to leverage IBM to contribute to that success. Because they listen deeply to what their clients need, they have breakthrough insights that add enormous value to their clients success and to IBM. These leaders establish trusted relationships that foster healthy open dialogues with their clients or client groups, leading to solutions that address the clients immediate business problems and create long-term value both for the client and for IBM as a whole.
Note: This competency is seen in non-client-facing roles such as development, or manufacturing as well as client facing roles such as sector GMs and MDs.

PREREQUISITE

STRENGTH

Actively and intensely listens to clients to understand their business. Takes the time to actively listen to the clients business needs (e.g., asks questions, gets various perspectives on issues). Starts by exploring the clients needs and how IBM adds value. Understands IBMs value add and aligns it to the clients business needs.

Based on deep listening, provides breakthrough insights for client growth, and how IBM can enable that growth. Provides breakthrough insights or feedback to the client that challenges the clients current perceptions about their own business. Acts on a deep understanding of the clients customer or market and how IBM can help the client shift to improve their business. Works to preserve the long-term viability of the relationship based on a clear understanding of both the clients and IBMs business models.

D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Focuses on identifying the right solution to address each clients specic need. Understands the clients industry, markets, and business model, and the clients strategy for winning. Identies with the clients business challenges (e.g., sees similarities between IBMs experience and the clients experience). Finds ways to customize what IBM has to oer to clients situation. May build mutual personal relationships (e.g., gets to know client as individuals; treats clients with respect even when disagreeing with them).
EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Builds on-going collegial relationships with key clients or client groups, based on mutual strategic interests. Establishes strong relationships at multiple levels with key decision makers and leaders in client organizations, through personal insight, trust, and open information sharing. Engages in healthy open debate with the client. Facilitates the partnership through mutual changes in behavior, procedures, norms, processes or cultures Inuences others to adapt their behaviors, norms and processes to strengthen lasting partnerships with strategic clients or broad customer bases.

Collaborative Inuence
Outstanding IBM leaders actively create and promote cross-boundary collaboration to do the right thing for IBM and its clientsregardless of formal authority. These leaders facilitate collaboration to address short- and longer-term eorts by getting the right people together from across IBM, articulating and enforcing norms of how the team will work together, and securing organizational support to enable a collaborative agenda. They create genuine interdependence and commitment to a higher common purpose that spans organizational boundaries. They do this by winning the hearts and minds of others in order to pursue new and extraordinary opportunities.

PREREQUISITE

STRENGTH

Promotes cooperation among individuals. Invites sharing of information and resources. Clearly articulates basic expectations of behavior (e.g., no nger-pointing or blaming; dont talk over each other or interrupt). Encourages impartial listening.

Creates cross-boundary collaboration around a longer-term commitment. Secures organizational support to enable a collaborative agenda. Fosters a genuine mutual concern for or investment in each others success. Gets agreement on roles and mutual benets. Ensures others have clear rules of engagement and reinforces these norms (e.g., How are we going to work together, who is doing what?).

D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Facilitates short-term teaming for an event-driven eort. Includes others who can provide an immediate contribution to the task. Pulls together individuals to team around an event (e.g., problem-solving, crisis, client opportunity). Claries the short-term purpose, expectations, and norms. Enforces the norms, setting boundaries on behavior and processes. Reconciles conicting interests or objectives.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Creates interdependence, building genuine commitment across organizational boundaries to a common purpose. Wins the hearts and minds of others around a common cause, creates a sense of commitment to a greater purpose. Assures long-term sustainability of eort through commitment to a common purpose. Builds an environment where others have internalized the norms. Promotes a self-less agenda; one that puts IBMs overall best interest rst.

Embracing Challenge
Outstanding IBM leaders see opportunity in complex and challenging situations. They get energized by complex and challenging problems and take personal responsibility to ensure that they are resolved. These leaders are able to do this by identifying the central issue in the complexity and getting themselves and others focused on addressing those vital few priorities. They take accountability enthusiastically while accurately conveying the risk or diculty involved. These leaders enthusiasm and their belief in a positive outcome in dicult situations inspire others to believe they can succeed and embrace the challenge themselves.

PREREQUISITE

STRENGTH

Believes in ones own ability in new and dierent situations. Enjoys opportunities to stretch ones abilities and learn new things. Expresses general condence in own abilities, experience and/or judgment. Expresses own opinion clearly and condently.

Focuses others on overcoming on-going obstacles to success by addressing core issues. Expresses belief that the team will prevail and engages them in solving the problems at hand. Demonstrates resilience and emotional stamina when diculties and problems occur, taking responsibility for the situation. Appreciates the complexity of the task, but focuses the team on resolving the key or vital few issues and moving forward. Describes current diculties in the context of longer-term opportunities in order to get people energized to overcome the obstacle.

D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Is energized by facing very challenging situations and problems. Takes on very challenging situations with enthusiasm and determination, while still conveying the diculty involved. Enjoys solving dicult, complex business problems, actually nds them energizing. Sees the business opportunity or growth potential in daunting situations.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Proactively builds in others the belief that they can innovate and grow the business. Creates belief in the team that they can excel and energizes them to engage in the cause. Regularly unleashes others ability to think innovatively about complex business issues (e.g., asks provocative questions to expand teams thinking about possibilities, empowers them to develop tactics and/or strategies, etc.). Motivates others to seek and embrace challenge, embedding this attitude into the way they approach business.

Thinking Horizontally
Outstanding IBM leaders think creatively, considering issues from multiple divergent perspectives. They think across boundaries, beginning from the end-user or clients customer while making connections across the various parts of IBM, partners, and suppliers. They synthesize these perspectives from within and outside IBM, leveraging the IBM enterprise to create innovative solutions and increase opportunities to grow ahead of the market.

PREREQUISITE

STRENGTH

Sees solutions within ones own domain. Recognizes opportunities or problems in ones area of discipline. Creates innovative solutions within ones immediate circle of inuence.

Incorporates perspectives of internal and external parties to identify long-term solutions. Sees opportunities to add sustainable value to a client or market by integrating multiple capabilities within IBM. Understands how various pieces of IBM are informally connected and driven.

D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Sees possibilities to add immediate value by linking an additional area of IBM with ones own. Looks to related areas of the organization and sees useful connections and possibilities to add value to solutions or business issues. Considers the implications of own actions on other areas and adjusts approaches to optimize solutions.

Anticipates the implications of the dynamic relationship of markets, politics, cultures, and geographies on IBM and its clients.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Leverages IBMs enterprise capability to address client or market opportunities in innovative ways. Re-conceptualizes the business by creating innovative and sustainable cross-IBM business solutions or models, starting from the client or market fundamentals. Identies the long-term impact of a solution through to the clients customer. Sees how IBM can connect together clients, their own customers, or vendors in new and useful ways.

Informed Judgment
Outstanding IBM leaders possess a level of objectivity in making timely decisions. Their decisions are based on data, facts, and perspectives gathered from a broad range of sources. They test their rst impressions with other people, and use facts and data to inform and shape their decisions and subsequent actions. They integrate the facts with their intuition and their acquired expertise. This enables them to make decisions with condence and an appropriate sense of urgency.

P RE R E Q U I S I T E

STRENGTH

Performs standard due diligence to gain insight or to inform standard business practice. Gathers background information regarding a client and their business. Uses readily accessible IBM information resources. May establish own systems to routinely monitor clients, market or technologies. Checks routinely with peers or management to validate ideas.

Seeks and uses non-traditional or innovative sources of information to guide signicant decisions. Utilizes non-traditional or innovative sources of data regarding clients, competitors, markets or technology. Learns from mistakes of self and others (e.g., conducts post-project reviews to inform future projects, peer reviews of projects in trouble, etc.). Makes data-driven decisions that address the immediate issue and consider the longer-term impact (i.e., several months out into the future).

D EM O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Even under pressure, quickly gathers information to make timely, objective decisions. Seeks out the perspectives of people (who are not directly involved) to gain insight into a situation. Establishes the facts by digging deeper, asking probing questions, challenging initial assertions. Gathers and validates information from dierent sources.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Synthesizes multiple, disparate sources of information, including experience and intuition, to make strategic decisions with both immediate and long-term implications. Builds a broad perspective from multiple sources of data (e.g., task forces, consultancies, connections throughout IBM and the industry). Pulls together data, acquired expertise, and intuition to continually rene their knowledge base. Weaves together the qualitative and quantitative, analytical and conceptual, the hard data and gut feel to see growth opportunities that are wellgrounded, but not initially obvious to others.

Strategic Risk Taking

Outstanding IBM leaders seize opportunities for innovation and business growth. They focus on identifying and driving forward bold, relevant and strategic opportunities from concept to reality. They do this in the face of signicant risk and despite resistance, using their own determination and resilience, collaborating to leverage resources within and outside IBM. They balance cost and benets over the short and long term, taking appropriate risk to drive protable and sustainable growth in pursuit of IBMs vision.

P RE R E Q U I S I T E

STRENGTH

Delivers results by improving performance within ones own organization. Finds opportunities for cost containment or eciency, changing systems and/or processes to do so. Commits direct team or resources under his/her control to realize improvements or eciencies in own organization. Looks for new ways to accomplish more with less resources.

Commits and mobilizes signicant resources over a longer time period (i.e., greater than one year) to create or seize relevant opportunities to drive innovation and growth. Takes calculated risks with explicit consideration of potential benets or gains as well as costs, over both the short and long term. Advances bold ideas in the face of resistance. Enlists the active involvement of multiple executives from around IBM to drive crossboundary investment in growth eort.

D EM O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Embraces and drives short-term opportunities (i.e., less than one year) for incremental growth within large client, brand, or oering. Seizes opportunities for incremental growth, mobilizing resources beyond ones immediate control. Sets aggressive, achievable goals to realize business growth. Adjusts existing approaches to generate incremental growth. Knows when a project is no longer viable and pulls the plug, or stops it, based on objective assessment.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Innovates to create exponential growth, using multiple resources across IBM and outside IBM. Produces exponential growth in an existing market or creates a new market through signicant innovation. Drives IBM to develop, adopt and implement new or dierent business models, processes, and systems. Gains commitment from multiple constituents in IBMs senior leadership in order to drive exponential growth. Creates a climate that inspires others to seize strategic opportunities.

Earning Trust
Outstanding IBM leaders respect the uniqueness of every person. They develop trusting relationships with all the people with whom they work, both inside and outside of IBM. They follow through on commitments and act with integrity. They refrain from cynicism and blaming when problems occur. Instead, they appreciate the unique strengths, limitations, and potential of people and develop mutually benecial relationships based on positive regard for the individual and their organization, whether inside or outside of IBM. They do what is right for the long-term good of the relationship even at the risk of a short-term or personal cost.

P RE R E Q U I S I T E

STRENGTH

Demonstrates respect for others (people or organizations) and follows through on commitments. Refrains from cynicism and blaming when problems occur. Is aware of own personal biases and assumptions. Is courteous and takes the time to thank individuals who have contributed to business eorts. Follows through on commitments and demonstrates consistency between words and actions.

Fosters mutuality in working relationships. Demonstrates genuineness by acknowledging personal mistakes or shortcomings. Preserves the dignity of others, demonstrates concern for the negative impact that business requirements may have on individuals as people, and diuses them where possible. Invites candid dialogue from others.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Does what is right for the long-term good of relationships inside and outside of IBM. Invests in relationships by putting the interests of others ahead of own personal agenda. Does what is right for the relationship even at the risk of a short-term or personal cost.

D EM O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Develops an objective appreciation of others, their strengths, weaknesses, perspective and potential. Invests the time to listen to and appreciate others viewpoints, even when they dier from ones own. Demonstrates respect for others organizational or cultural norms. Ensures there is public recognition for those who have contributed to business eorts. Demonstrates straight talk; is honest and candid in tough discussions with others, even when it would be easier in the short run not to do so.

Enabling Performance and Growth

Outstanding IBM leaders focus on strategic priorities to provide on-going clarity to their own and extended teams. They anticipate and remove obstacles that interfere with the ability of these teams to achieve objectives and pursue business growth. They demonstrate the courage to challenge inuential people in order to remove obstacles to performance. This includes supporting others as they take signicant entrepreneurial risk and protecting them from inappropriate consequences. These leaders challenge prevailing practices to make lasting and systemic changes that improve the performance of our people and grow the business.

P RE R E Q U I S I T E

STRENGTH

Provides direction and oers support to the team. Sets performance expectations clearly and ensures that others understand the importance of the goal. Tracks performance against plan and holds people accountable. May not proactively anticipate obstacles, but oers support when they occur.

Anticipates and removes obstacles to others performance despite organizational resistance. Empowers others to take on entrepreneurial risks for the good of IBM alleviating undue organizational pressure while holding them accountable for outcomes. Takes a stand in the face of internal opposition to enable others to focus on performance. Buers the team from unnecessary bureaucracy and organizational processes that interfere with performance.

D EM O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Focuses the team on strategic issues and provides on-going clarity. Prioritizes multiple expectations against strategic direction, providing focus and clarity for the team. Helps others understand the relationship between their role and the overall goals of the organization. Translates goals that seem unattainable into manageable pieces. Follows up to ensure that people have what they need to succeed (e.g., oers on-going encouragement, ensures individuals superiors are aligned, etc.). Motivates and encourages people continuously (e.g., communicates success stories widely, etc.).
EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Changes systems or processes that impede growth and performance. Coordinates IBMers to change systems that interfere with client focus and performance. Challenges established processes in order to reduce the amount of heroic eort or energy needed to get results. Establishes a climate of continuous improvement, where people are expected to take steps to remove obstacles, regardless of their own position or level.

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Developing IBM People and Communities

Outstanding IBM leaders proactively commit their time and eort to develop themselves and other individuals, teams, and communities in IBM. They set an example through their own personal growth and development, as well as by coaching and mentoring others. These leaders create, support, and participate in communities for developing capability in others and promoting a sense of association. They also proactively take accountability for developing the future leaders of IBM both inside and outside their own organizations.

PREREQUISITE

STRENGTH

Seeks opportunities to grow and further develop ones own capabilities. Accepts tough assignments to broaden skills. Establishes relationships with mentors for ones own development. Understands own strengths and weaknesses, and what it takes to drive personal growth. Sets an example by continually seeking new developmental opportunities.

Establishes forums for developing capability in others. Focuses on groups or teams, often beyond direct reports for development and community building. Finds challenging and relevant assignments and developmental opportunities for others. Uses creative, out-of-the-box approaches to maximize developmental opportunities for others. Pulls together and redistributes helpful information, resources, etc. to promote education, insight and development (e.g., gathers success stories to communicate to others). Structures team meetings and processes to further the development of the team members (e.g., I want you all to think about this issue as if you were CEOs and bring ideas on that basis).

D E M O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Commits time to coach and mentor specic individuals for their professional development. Formulates an accurate assessment of an individuals capabilities and development needs. Provides developmental feedback and advice. Creates ongoing information and learning opportunities, exposure to new ideas and experiences (e.g., opportunities to present to higher level execs). Gives positive feedback for improved performance in the moment.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Takes accountability for investing in the future leadership of IBM. Thinks creatively and deeply about who the high potential talent is and what they need for development. Orchestrates cross-functional and/or outside silo assignments, and provides specic support. Gives up or moves key resource to another part of the organization for that individuals growth and development as a leader and to improve the leadership pipeline for IBM. Continually nds opportunities to build and reinforce the community of IBM (e.g., speaks to site forums, actively shares and meets with IBMers across the enterprise).

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Passion for IBMs Future

Outstanding IBM leaders are passionate about IBMs capabilities and opportunities for making a positive dierence in the world. This passion comes from realizing that IBMs values and heritage are consistent with their personal values, convictions, and aspirations as leaders. These outstanding leaders not only want to win in the marketplace, but also deeply believe in the quality and breadth of IBMs exceptional capability. Their enthusiasm and passion energizes others to achieve IBMs unique potential to transform business and society.

P RE R E Q U I S I T E

STRENGTH

Is excited about IBMs current opportunity to win in the market-place. Takes pride in telling the story of IBMs transformation. Shows enthusiasm for IBM to win. Motivated to beat the competition

Is energized by personal opportunities to contribute to IBM. Actively seeks opportunities to contribute. Make tough personal choices for the good of IBM (e.g., takes an assignment that is challenging and personally risky, but it is the right thing to do). Sees ones self as reecting IBM. Expresses pride in belonging to, and identifying with, the larger purpose of IBM.

D EM O N S T R AT E D CO M P E T E N C E

Demonstrates pride and enthusiasm for the collective depth and breadth of IBM. Sees the match between IBM values and ones own. Admires the exceptional capability and quality of IBMs people. Extols the values of IBM. Speaks with enthusiasm about IBMs exceptional capability to solve customer and societal issues.

EX TR AORDINARY STRENGTH

Gets others energized to realize IBMs unique potential. Confronts behavior that undermines the stature of the organization. Refocuses peoples energy on leveraging IBMs unique capabilities for new opportunities to win. Embodies IBM values and demonstrates personal conviction in a way that inspires others to do the same. Creates a belief in people that IBM is capable of transforming business and society.

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