Why Competency Frameworks Fail, And the Easy Fix
You know the moment. The leadership framework is up on the wall, the competencies sound sensible, and everyone nods along because they’re good humans who want to do a good job.
Then Monday hits.
One leader goes back, tries to “be more strategic” and ends up buried in more meetings. Another gets told to “coach more” and hears it as “be nicer”, so they avoid the hard conversations entirely.
Here’s the uncomfortable part: a lot of leaders already suspect the training isn’t landing. In a 2024 survey, only 8% of managers said their company’s leadership development initiatives are fully effective along with 45% saying their organisation isn’t doing enough to develop future leaders.
And in the Global Leadership Forecast 2025, trust in immediate managers fell to 29% (down from 46% in 2022), which is a pretty loud signal that “we’ve trained them” is not the same as “we’ve helped them lead better.”
So why does the same model and the same workshop land so differently? Because most competency frameworks assume people are motivated by the same levers and will change the same way: set the standard, explain the behaviour, give feedback, reward improvement.
But motivation is personal. What feels like “clarity” to one person feels like micromanagement to another. What feels like “empowerment” to one feels like abandonment to someone who’s craving structure.
This is where personality becomes the missing translation layer. It doesn’t diagnose “bad competencies”. It explains why a behaviour is costly, avoidable, or overused for this particular human, in this particular context.
TALY brings leadership competencies to life: linking trait patterns to real workplace behaviours, so coaches and HR can stop prescribing generic fixes and start designing sustainable micro-shifts that actually stick for each individual.
Want to learn more? Let’s chat about how TALY’s tools can help you navigate the entire employee lifecycle and empower everyone along the journey. Get in touch or book a demo today.
A Quick Refresher
When we say “most leadership models assume everyone is motivated the same way”, we’re talking about one-size-fits-all levers: set a goal, add a reward, give recognition, repeat. It’s a neat playbook… until you remember people aren’t robots with identical wiring.
Self-Determination Theory is a helpful anchor: most of us do better when work supports autonomy (choice), competence (mastery), and relatedness (connection).
But we don’t all want those in the same dose, at the same time, delivered in the same way. There are also stable differences in how people generally regulate themselves and respond to environments (some lean toward autonomy, others respond more to being there for others, etc).
So if we’re leading as if “motivation” is a single button, we’ll keep pressing the wrong many parts of the team.
Why Does it Matter?
Competency frameworks are meant to be behavioural: what good looks like, in observable actions and decisions. But a framework can’t tell you why a behaviour is missing, inconsistent, or overdone for a particular person. That’s where personality becomes useful, not as a verdict (“they’re not leadership material”), but as a perspective (“this behaviour costs them more energy”, or “this behaviour is their comfort zone and they’re overusing it”).
If we skip that lens, we tend to misdiagnose: “lack of accountability” when it’s actually fear, unclear expectations, or a confidence gap; “poor influence” when it’s a mismatch in how they prefer to communicate.
And motivation matters here: research suggests some kinds of tangible external rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation for certain tasks, especially when they feel controlling rather than supportive.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? The more we try to tell people to behave a certain way and give them rewards, the feeling of autonomy and authenticity is taken away. Personality helps restore that balance and connect behaviours to deep motivators.
Balance your Approach:
Personality isn’t destiny, and it’s not an excuse either.
On average, traits do show relationships with leadership outcomes (for example, meta-analyses find links between Big Five traits like extroversion, conscientiousness and leadership), but those links are not a straight line from “trait” to “behaviour.
Neither end of a trait spectrum is “better”: high assertiveness helps in a crisis, and high harmony helps when you need buy‑in, what matters is when each one shines, and when it becomes a blindspot.
Practical Steps to Take
Ask: “What makes a week feel successful for you?” and listen for autonomy/competence/connection cues.
Translate one competency into two behaviours: one “natural”, one “stretch”, both valid.
Offer choice on the “how”, not the “what”: keep outcomes fixed, vary the path.
Use strengths as scaffolding: build the stretch behaviour on what already comes easily.
Run a two-week experiment with a check-in; reset fast if stress or overload spikes.
Here’s an example…
Jess needs two team leads to lift “stakeholder influence” (a competency in their leadership framework).
Alex is thoughtful and prefers writing; Mari is energised by fast conversation and can steamroll when she feels momentum is building. In TALY, Jess links the competency to clear behaviours then uses each person’s trait pattern as a coaching lens, not a label. Alex’s “outside-my-default” stretch is the live meeting, so Jess starts with a written one-pager and a 10-minute prep call to practise the first two lines. Mari’s over functioning pattern is talking too soon, so Jess coaches a simple rule: ask two questions before offering a view, and summarise the stakeholder’s priority back to them before offering a solution or your own perspective.
Competency frameworks give us the what: the behaviours we want to see. Personality gives us a humane view of the why: why a behaviour is missing, why it’s inconsistent, or why it’s showing up in an overcooked form. When you coach with that perspective, you can recalibrate in ways that actually stick—because the plan fits the person, not just the spreadsheet.
Check your TALY My Profile to spot where this shows up, then pick one micro-shift to test this week. What would change in your next 1:1 if you coached the “fuel” behind the behaviour, not just the behaviour itself?
Get in touch to find out more… we really do love talking about this stuff. Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.
