The Hogan 360 Leadership Model and 14 Core Competencies
Self-Management	Relationship Management	Working in the Business	Working on the Business
Integrity Resilience	Communication People Skills Team Player Engaging	Capability Efficiency Results Customer	Accountability Motivation Strategy Innovation

The Customer competency within the Relationship Management quadrant on the Hogan 360 refers to whether an individual is driven by internal and external customer needs to drive improvement. Higher scores tend to be seen as assertive with customers, outgoing, and enthusiastic about forming relationships with others. Those scoring low on this competency may show indifference towards the treatment of internal and external customers, and struggle to build and maintain customer relationships. We might expect to see those scoring lower on the Customer dimension to simultaneously score higher on the HDS Moving Away cluster (Excitable, Sceptical, Cautious, Reserved and Leisurely), as well as lower on Sociability on the HPI. When coaching those with lower scores, listening to and acting on customer feedback, as well as building customer service focus will be key areas of concentration.

The first area you will want to explore with this individual is how can they better seek and act upon customer feedback. This may go against their nature, especially if they score lower on Sociability, as they tend not to reach out to others for feedback. In terms of gathering feedback from various internal customer relationships, the 360 report is a great place to start. Use the delineation of feedback by various groups (i.e. managers, peers and reports) to determine which internal parties need more attention. Leverage the open-ended question responses to determine examples of situations in which this low customer focus is adversely impacting key relationships. From this feedback, help the individual determine a key initiative or area of focus that they can address based on specific feedback. If examples are not provided within the comments section, the individual may need to find another avenue to elicit feedback from internal customers, such as informal meetings. External customers are often not included in 360 assessments, however, their feedback will be critical to capture as well. To do so, have the individual identify who their external customers are – is it the general public, vendors, or specific client accounts that they work with? Have the individual create a list of any and all external customers and determine how they might elicit feedback from each group. Using measures like customer satisfaction surveys, online reviews and even conversations with key client contacts can be beneficial ways to determine what the customers’ needs are and if they are being met. By better understanding which customer groups need more attention and specifically why they need attention, the individual will be better able to effectively interact with both internal and external customers.

A second area of focus will be fostering an attitude of customer focus amongst one’s team. This will be particularly important if the individual manages others. In order to build an attitude of customer focus, the individual must understand why it is important to focus on the customer. Help them understand why, given their role and responsibilities, that focusing on customers is important. Have them identify who their customers are (both internal and external) and determine what impact their relationships with their customers has on the business. If you have MVPI data, you may take a look at this person’s values to help determine what might motivate them to focus on the customer. For instance, if Commerce is high, help the individual understand how bettering their customer relationships might impact the bottom line. Once the individual has an awareness of why focusing on the customer is important, help them determine how they can share this notion with their team. Is there an initiative that the individual can drive to promote customer service within their work area? One coaching tip would be to have the individual identify three key customers, whether internal or external, that they can spend time building a better relationship with. Once identified, have them schedule some time to meet with the customer to learn more about their area of the business or check in on any customer concerns. If the person is high on Hedonism, you might suggest they plan a lunch or coffee meeting with the customer. This will allow the individual to not only get to know their own customers better, but also foster a sense of customer focus amongst those they work with.