Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™

A robust leadership competency framework is the foundation for a strategic, integrated approach to leadership and talent management.

The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ (KLFA) contains 38 leadership competencies that define the behavioural skills required for individuals at all levels in an organisation to succeed in their roles.

Developed through rigorous scientific research by Korn Ferry’s talented team of job and leadership experts, with input from business leaders worldwide, KFLA provides a data-driven approach to defining leadership. It gives insights into:

  • The competencies that are directly related to success for leaders.
  • How these competencies evolve across first-level, mid-level, and senior leadership roles.
  • Which competencies drive important outcomes, such as organisational culture and employee engagement.

While roles and responsibilities vary across organisations, KFLA offers a robust benchmark, allowing you to compare your leadership assumptions against the performance data of over 92,000 leaders worldwide.

Competency models

A competency model creates a roadmap for organisational excellence because it defines the behavioural skills people need to succeed in specific roles.

Whether driving change, promoting innovation, or pursuing a growth agenda, specific competencies will enable people at all levels to contribute.

At a macro level, you can create a competency model to focus your people on the skills that drive performance in your organisation, industry, and operating environment.

You can also drill down to a micro level to diagnose, for example, the skills an individual team member needs to develop to succeed as a team leader.

Implementing competencies

Attend a Korn Ferry Leadership Architectcertification or training course to gain a comprehensive overview of your options and develop a plan for your competency goals.

You can start where you have the greatest need, such as building a leadership model aligned with business goals, creating success profiles for critical roles, or revising your talent acquisition process.

Next, think about how you will implement your newly acquired knowledge. How ready are your people to adopt new practices ? Do you need a strong business case to win them over to your ideas? Would they prefer a detailed plan or a fast, practical solution?

The LDN International team has worked with these tools and resources for many years and has an unparalleled depth of expertise in their application.

Observing those who have successfully introduced competencies, we notice that they:

  • Treat the implementation as a project, planning, organising and measuring progress.
  • Engage others in the initiative, assigning them roles and responsibilities.
  • Source external assistance to supplement their in-house capacity and capability.
  • Tailor their approach to their people and culture.
  • Develop a communication plan for all stakeholder groups.
  • Set realistic time frames to avoid overloading people.

Leadership tools and resources

When you get started, an important consideration will be what tools you need, how many and in what format.

You can purchase the books, card decks, and research guides from the online Korn Ferry product store. The content of these resources is also available in a digital platform that gives you a single access point to the product suite.

Known as the Talent Hub, the digital platform is accessible by subscription. It contains resources ready to use or edit to suit your needs and to download the content to your organisation’s intranet.

How we can help

LDN International offers an advisory service to help design the optimal approach for implementing your organisation’s competency framework.

We believe in transferring knowledge and will enable you to drive the implementation while remaining available to provide support when you need us. Please get in touch with us with any questions you may have.