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Leadership Competencies Explorer

A practical guide to the 38 Korn Ferry Leadership Architect® competencies. Use it to build management capability, find where your gaps may be, and see how your own view of your leadership compares with the people who work closest to you.

By Richard Budd · Resource · 15 min to explore

How to use this resource

Three ways to put the framework to work, whether you are developing yourself, your managers or your leadership team.

Develop management competencies

Move beyond a vague idea of “good management” and give people a shared language for what effective leadership looks like in practice.

  • Set clear expectations for managers at each level
  • Shape development plans and coaching conversations
  • Inform leadership programmes and succession planning

Identify where gaps may exist

Review each competency honestly and mark it as a strength, a development area or a likely gap. Patterns quickly show where to focus.

  • Spot gaps for an individual, a team or a whole management group
  • Separate what matters most from what is simply nice to have
  • Avoid trying to fix all 38 at once

Peer-to-peer leadership reflection

Ask colleagues who work closely with you to complete the printable feedback sheet, then compare how they see your strengths with your own perception.

  • Discover strengths you under-estimate
  • Uncover blind spots you may not see
  • Turn comparison into an open, honest conversation

Open the printable peer sheet

A simple way to work through it

ExploreOpen each category and read the key behaviours that sit behind each competency.
ReflectRate yourself: 12 strengths, 14 developing and 12 gaps. Go with your first instinct.
Invite peersPrint the peer sheet and ask 3–5 trusted colleagues to complete it about you, offline.
CompareLay their sheets next to your own summary and look at where perceptions match, and where they differ.
ActChoose two or three priorities and agree practical next steps.
Tip for peer reflection: agree the ground rules first. Feedback should focus on observable behaviours, be given to help rather than judge, and be received with curiosity. The biggest insights often come from the differences, not the agreement.

Explore the 38 competencies

Open a category, then open any competency to read its key behaviours and add your own reflections.

Make it a real choice. Across all 38 competencies, select exactly 12 Strengths, 14 Developing and 12 Gaps. Limits force you to prioritise, rather than rating everything as “fine”.

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About the framework

The Korn Ferry Leadership Architect® framework is a leadership competency model organised into four factors and twelve clusters (A–L). It is referenced here to support reflection and discussion about the behaviours that contribute to individual, team and organisational success.

RB Business Insights uses competency frameworks such as this to support leadership development, talent strategies, succession planning, performance discussions and organisational capability reviews. While organisations may choose to assess all 38 competencies, the greatest impact often comes from identifying the key leadership behaviours that will make the biggest difference to performance, culture and long-term success.

Important notice. Korn Ferry and Leadership Architect® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Korn Ferry, and all intellectual property in the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect® framework, including its competency names, structure and associated materials, belongs to Korn Ferry. RB Business Insights is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or licensed by Korn Ferry, and references to Korn Ferry are for identification and educational purposes only. The descriptions and behaviours on this page are RB Business Insights’ own independent summaries and interpretations; they are not Korn Ferry content and do not reproduce Korn Ferry’s assessments, ratings, norms, reports or other proprietary materials. This is a free reflection and discussion aid, not a psychometric assessment, validated instrument or professional diagnosis, and results should not be used for selection, promotion, performance-rating or other employment decisions. Your responses are saved only in your own browser and are not collected by RB Business Insights. To access the official Korn Ferry Leadership Architect® tools, assessments and certified practitioners, please visit kornferry.com. If you are a rights holder and have a concern about this page, please contact RB Business Insights and we will respond promptly.

Want to turn reflection into development?

We can help you choose the competencies that matter most for your organisation, run structured peer reflection sessions and build practical leadership development plans.

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