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 second competency within the Relationship Management category is People Skills. Those who score high on this competency tend to be seen as easy to deal with, helpful and caring towards others. They may be described as a positive role model in the sense that they interact well with others, make others feel valued, and appear thoughtful. We might expect those with higher scores on People Skills to also score high on Interpersonal Sensitivity (HPI) and lower on the moving away HDS scales, in particular, Excitable and Reserved. Conversely, lower scores on People Skills might be described as direct and blunt in the way that they communicate with others. Extremely low scorers may at times appear harsh and unsympathetic to the needs of others. They may struggle to build effective relationships with others, as they come across as overly critical of others, may ignore social cues, and may isolate themselves, especially during stressful circumstances.

When an individual is low on People Skills, as well as Adjustment and Interpersonal Sensitivity, they may be described by others as overly critical and unsympathetic to the needs of others. This may be a real blind spot for the individual, especially those higher up, who may not have received a lot of feedback around these tendencies. When working with someone like this, it will be important to help them to better understand other people’s perspectives and where they are coming from in order to be less critical of others. Have them consider in what ways others might view them as judgmental. Encourage the individual to focus on the positive qualities others bring to the table, instead of dwelling on what is wrong.  In order to appear more sympathetic and caring, help the individual determine how they can incorporate more common courtesies into their daily routine. For example, can they start saying ‘hello’ to others in the hallway or use small opportunities, like a visit to the coffee machine, to interact with others? Perhaps they can interact with others they manage or those on their team more frequently by taking the long route out of the building or to the break room. When they run into a peer or direct report, they should leverage the opportunity to learn more about the person by asking about their interests or how things are going. If the person appears rigid in their interactions, encourage them to incorporate light humor, but avoid heavy sarcasm. Finally, past actions in this area may have caused reputational damage to how others perceive their relationship skills. Help the individual identify people they may need to apologise to for past actions and focus on building those relationships in the future.

Those scoring high on the Moving Away cluster (Excitable, Sceptical, Cautious, Reserved and Leisurely) and low on the People Skills competency may have a tendency to pull away from others, especially during times of stress. In particular, the combination of low People Skills and high Excitable may cause the individual to appear moody to others, especially when things do not go their way. This may cause others to avoid them and not to reach out when needed. Another example is someone who scores higher on Reserved combined with low People Skills. This may cause the individual to close off from others when they are stressed and seem unreachable to others. Given both of these tendencies, it will be important to work with this individual to help them understand what this might look like from other people’s perspectives. Work with them to identify how they can be more visible to their subordinates or team and better understand how their emotions might be coming across to others, especially under stress. What triggers such emotions? Do they have an outlet for their stress? If not, help them strategise around what they would be willing to do to relieve some of their stress. Lastly, do they have a tendency to close their door or keep their head down when stressed? If so, a simple coaching tip would be to keep an open-door policy, even during stressful times. They may even need to re-arrange their office so that they are more visible to others.