FREESKILL v1.0UPDATED 2026-08

Values & Competencies

Values and Competencies turns abstract principles into observable, job-relevant behavior, then calibrates how that behavior changes by role and context.

Values fail when they describe personality, similarity, or a slogan instead of work. People cannot apply a label such as excellence consistently unless the model shows what a person does, what evidence demonstrates it, and where the useful boundary sits.

This playbook separates values, competencies, behavior, and evidence. It defines examples for individual contributors and people managers, names underused and overused expressions, tests productive tensions, and keeps approval visible before the model enters hiring or reviews.

A value becomes operational only when two people can recognize the same behavior without judging personality or fit.

SIGNALS YOU NEED THIS

The value list is mostly abstract nouns and adjectives.

Hiring or review conversations rely on culture fit instead of job-relevant evidence.

Managers agree with the principles but apply different standards to the same behavior.

REPLACES

Poster values, personality labels, and people criteria that change with the reviewer.

PAIRS WITH

Think Big, Goals, Annual Reviews, and Making Great Hiring Decisions.

0 of 4 steps complete

STEP 01Set the boundary and inventory evidence

Name the population, roles, intended uses, status, and human approver. Separate strategy, stated principles, observed work, employee input, and open questions before drafting.

SCOPE
  Team: Customer operations
  Roles: Individual contributors and people managers
  Intended uses: Onboarding first; hiring and reviews after calibration
  Status: Working draft
  Approver: Operations director
  Missing evidence: Role examples and employee calibration

STEP 02Write observable behavior by role

Turn each supported principle into actions and job-relevant evidence. Keep the principle stable while showing the different work through which each role demonstrates it.

COMPETENCY: CLOSE THE LOOP
  Individual contributor: surfaces a dependency early and records the handoff.
  People manager: defines decision rights and removes the blocker without taking over.
  Evidence: dated decision, dependency record, escalation, or closure artifact.
  Not evidence: enthusiasm, loyalty, personality similarity, or culture fit.

STEP 03Calibrate ranges and tensions

Define underused, just-right, and overused behavior. Pair principles that can conflict and write the question that helps a person choose in context.

RANGE: MOVE WITH URGENCY
  Underused: waits for avoidable approval.
  Just right: makes a reversible choice within authority and communicates it.
  Overused: skips a required safety or quality check.

TENSION: SPEED AND RIGOR
  Is this choice reversible, and what check protects the downside?

STEP 04Stage adoption before people decisions

Calibrate with covered roles, test one low-stakes process, revise, approve, train for evidence, and audit use. Give every action an owner and due date.

ADOPTION ACTIONS
  Calibrate examples with role representatives.
  Owner: Owner needed
  Due date: Date needed
  Completion evidence: approved examples and recorded disagreements

  Hiring or review use: blocked until calibration and human approval are complete.

Download the folder into your agent's skills directory. It uses only the material you provide and makes no remote calls.

skills/values-and-competencies

values-and-competencies/
├── SKILL.md                         ← create, transform, and audit modes
├── meta.yaml                        ← version, sources, test prompts, changelog
├── LICENSE.md                       ← MIT
├── assets/
│   ├── competency-model-template.md ← behaviors, ranges, tensions, adoption
│   └── competency-audit-scorecard.md ← evidence-safe model audit
└── references/
    ├── behavior-design.md           ← design tests and role calibration
    └── adoption-points.md           ← staged people-process adoption

INVOKE IT LIKE THIS

"Draft competencies with example behaviors for my team."

Download skill v1.0 View source files

WORKS WITHClaude Code