CORE COMPETENCIES FOR THE SENIOR …

1 core COMPETENCIES FORTHE SENIOR MANAGERS OFTRADE ASSOCIATIONSREPORTA ugust 1998 compass PartnershipFOREWORDThe demands being made on trade associations and their SENIOR executives bymembers and those in government are ever increasing. In order to remain effective,trade associations need to ensure that they maximise their most important asset theirpeople. In order to achieve this, trade associations must continually appraise andenhance the skills and professionalism of the people that work for is against this background that we felt it was timely to undertake a study of theskills and competence requirements of trade association report develops a framework of COMPETENCIES and makes recommendations bothfor individual trade associations, as well as for the trade association sector as a is only the start of a process and it is the intention of the Trade Association Forumto find ways of turning the recommendations into action points which will be ofbenefit to all trade would like to thank all the members of the Steering Group who helped in thepreparation of this report, and also all the associations who completed thequestionnaire.

2 We are also very grateful to the DTI for their financial support for MooreTrade Association ForumAugust 1998 CONTENTSEXECUTIVE TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE ASSOCIATIONS IN OF TRADE ASSOCIATIONS HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCIES THE COMPETENCIES 1:IDENTIFY THE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED FOR EACH SENIOR TEAM 2:ASSESS MANAGERS AGAINST THE COMPETENCIES 3:IDENTIFY OPTIONS FOR DEVELOPING AND FOR FOR THE TRADE ASSOCIATION A: MEMBERSHIP OF STEERING B: KEY DATA FROM C: SUMMARYThis report is the result of a study of the core COMPETENCIES required for trade associationmanagers undertaken in 1998 by compass Partnership, management aims of the study were to enable trade associations to:? identify the skills and COMPETENCIES they need in their SENIOR managers;? assess their SENIOR managers and identify any development study involved:? six case studies with trade associations involving detailed interviews with theirsenior managers;?

3 Three focus groups with another 20 trade associations;? a detailed questionnaire which was returned by 116 associations;? interviews with opinion formers in Government, CBI and with a firm ofrecruitment FINDINGSWe found that:? only 26% of Directors General surveyed had been recruited from within the tradeassociation sector. The majority of Directors General are therefore new to tradeassociation work;? fewer than half the associations surveyed had in place a formal appraisal system;? the amount spent on training by associations was significantly lower than theaverage for British conclude that, as a sector as a whole, there is substantial scope for improvement in tradeassociations approach to appraisal, training and study involved the development of a framework of 20 COMPETENCIES which associationscan use to assess their SENIOR managers. The framework is set out in the table below, and wewould emphasise that it is a framework, and that few SENIOR managers would be expected topossess all of 20 competenciesINTERPERSONALCOMMUNICATIONSE CTORANALYSISMANAGEMENTR elationshipmanagementDiscretionDiplomacy PresenceLeadershipListeningWritingPresen tationMediaStrategic thinkingSector knowledgeTechnical knowledgeCommercialawarenessAnalyticalth inkingPeoplemanagementSelf individual SENIOR managers will vary in their strengths and weaknesses, the studyshowed that, overall, there is particular scope for development in the following COMPETENCIES :?

4 Interpersonal: especially relationship management, presence and leadership;? communication: particularly listening, writing and media;? public policy and political awareness, both in UK and European context;? commercial awareness;? management: especially planning and people found that:? Directors General need to be all-rounders, able to perform a wide variety of rolesas required;? second tier managers are often specialists focussing on a particular area andtherefore with a need for fewer COMPETENCIES ;? that the gap between the performance of Directors General appears large,possibly accounting for the fact that many associations fill their Director Generalpost recommend that associations review their processes for the induction, appraisal anddevelopment of their SENIOR managers and ensure they have in place human resource policiesand practices which assess performance and identify development needs. We recommend thatassociations consider Investors In People as an approach to training and development.

5 Wealso recommend that associations increase their investment in training and individual associations can make progress on their own, few, if any, are large enoughto develop training courses themselves. Therefore it will be essential that action is taken bytrade associations as a the short term, we recommend that the Trade Association Forum publishes a trainingdirectory listing existing training providers and the nature of the training they this we recommend that consideration is given to the following initiatives:? developing a short modular course (say 5-8 days) for Directors General coveringthe key COMPETENCIES identified earlier;? developing a course for second tier managers which would probably be shorter(say 2-3 days). Its purpose would be to give an overview of association work;? undertaking a review of existing training initiatives, including those provided byrelevant professional bodies in the UK and US;? creation of a shadowing or mentoring scheme for new Directors also consider that it may be appropriate to establish a Professional Development WorkingParty to take this work TO THE REPORTThis report is the result of a study of the skills and COMPETENCIES of SENIOR managers in tradeassociations conducted in 1998 by compass Partnership, management consultants.

6 The studyaimed to enable trade associations to:? Identify the skills and COMPETENCIES they need in their SENIOR managers;? Assess their SENIOR managers and identify any development study also aimed to contribute to and stimulate the development of courses/programmesfor trade association study should be seen in the context of increasing interest in the performance of tradeassociations. In particular:? The DTI s Trade Association Initiative, which is aimed at securing moreeffective trade associations, and which has led to the development of the ModelTrade Association a best practice guide;? Two benchmarking studies involving first 27 large associations and secondly 135associations of all sizes. These studies, undertaken by compass Partnership,resulted in published reports which identified good practice in trade associationmanagement and which documented the performance of trade associationsagainst the good practice standards;? The creation in 1997 of the Trade Association Forum (TAF) to act as a catalystfor the exchange and improvement of trade association was particular interest in undertaking a study on SENIOR managers skills andcompetencies for the following reasons:?

7 SENIOR managers have a critical role to play in trade associations. It is thereforeimportant that associations have SENIOR managers with the right skills andexperience;? No previous work had been undertaken to pinpoint the COMPETENCIES required;? The high degree of similarity of trade association work indicated that it would befeasible to develop a set of generic COMPETENCIES applicable to most skills and COMPETENCIES project was supported by TAF and the Department of Trade andIndustry (DTI). A Steering Group for the study was formed, comprising SENIOR tradeassociation managers and representatives of TAF and the DTI. The membership of thisgroup is listed in Appendix study involved:? Six case studies of small, medium and large associations which involved 15structured interviews with association SENIOR managers; Three focus groups involving 20 associations;? A detailed questionnaire (see Appendix C) which was completed by 116 addition, interviews were undertaken with key opinion-formers in the Confederation ofBritish Industry, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods, Institute of CharteredSecretaries and Administrators, Saxton Bamfylde (Executive Recruitment Consultants), DTIand STRUCTURE OF THE REPORTC hapter 2 of this report puts the study in context by describing the main activities performedby trade associations and, from the 116 associations surveyed, includes a profile of chiefexecutives in terms of age, experience and qualifications, and a broader view of associationhuman resource practices.

8 Chapter 3 describes the COMPETENCIES framework, giving adetailed analysis for each of the 20 COMPETENCIES identified. Chapter 4 outlines ways inwhich the COMPETENCIES framework can be applied. The final chapter sets out ourconclusions and this report we have used the following terms:? Director General has been used for the most SENIOR member of the paid staff;? Second tier managers has been used to denote those managers reporting to theDirector General. Some trade associations may have no second tier managers;? SENIOR managers has been used to denote both the Director General and secondtier managers;? Chairman has been used throughout for the most SENIOR non-executive ASSOCIATIONS IN associations are set up to provide collective representation and services to a tradesector or sub-sector. The trade sector may be defined by a product, service, market Trade Association Forum (TAF) was set up in 1997 and holds the most up-to-datestatistics for the sector.

9 Extrapolating from these estimates, it appears that there are about1,000 trade associations employing approximately 10,000 they serve commercial, profit-making member companies, trade associations arethemselves non-profit-making organisations. Their legitimacy is based on their membership,for whom they provide services and on whose behalf they aim to influence governments, theEU, opinion-formers and the general public. The key roles performed by trade associationsas identified in the previous benchmarking studies are set out of members interests to Government, regulatory bodies and in Europe formsa major part of many trade associations activities. Good practice includes:? Providing leadership for the sector on difficult issues;? Emphasising effectiveness rather than visibility and audibility;? Presenting cases with substantive research;? Taking account of the political agenda;? Gaining feedback on performance from Government and regulators;? Forming coalitions with other UK and European associations to leadershipAssociations can provide industry leadership in key areas such as sector competitiveness,exporting, standards setting, innovation and technology transfer.

10 Good practice in industryleadership includes:? Developing a vision for the sector;? Creating an export strategy and making use of Government export services;? Identifying and promoting sector standards, innovation and technology relations and communicationsPart of a trade association s role is to help to create a positive public image of the sector. Apublic image helps to support representations to UK and European governments andregulators. Good practice includes:? Choosing the right issues; Developing close and regular links with journalists;? Taking most opportunities to give radio/TV interviews;? Developing a communications servicesAssociations provide a range of services for members including information and guidance onlegislation/regulation, fora for specialist groups, industry statistics, health and safetyinformation, and publications and market information. Good practice includes:? Communicating with members on a regular basis;? Developing appropriate forms of communication with members;?