What is Contribution?

Competency Frameworks - the norm for many organisations

Many organisations have excellent technical competency frameworks, supported in many cases by trade associations and chartership or certifications in those disciplines developed by technical training on a well-defined skills pathway.

Most organisations either don’t have a corresponding interpersonal skills framework, or if they do, the corresponding training is generally not planned or personalised to support an individual’s management skills capability development. It simply isn’t given the focus and structure that technical training is. Yet when a team member is promoted to a management position the ability to manage people (by definition) is essential. Without timely, structured, personalised training, a manager can reduce the contribution of the team they are managing.

What is the Contribution Curve?

The Contribution Curve is a management and leadership skills competency framework. It is ‘soft skills with structure’, allowing the ability to nail jelly to the wall! (some people talk about soft skills being like trying to nail jelly to a wall!). The Contribution Curve provides insight, acts as guidance and helps to construct manageable objectives for development.

The Contribution Curve has 5 levels, and as you rise up them, you’re making an increasing amount of contribution to the organisation’s success. Your impact grows and the difference you make increases.

The 5 levels of Contribution for Managers: 

1. Reacting: not a good place for long. Looks a bit like a headless chicken.

2. Controlling: Has all the right people with the right skills in the right jobs. Has things under control and is performing well.

3. Directing: Starting to trust and empower their team and lift their heads up to work with their peers and indirect teams. Innovates and plans for change.

4. Facilitating: fully collaborative, working across peer groups and the wider team. Thinks strategically and plans for the longer term. Their team surprises and delights them every day!

5. Leading: focuses on the long-term strategy to delight customers and role models in people management. Focuses on the wider ecosystem in which their organisation operates and collaborates to make it healthier for the good of all.

And each level has a series of themes such as: Setting Direction to ensure everyone is pointed in the same, motivating direction; Planning and Co-ordinating to ensure all your resources are optimised in the short term and sustainable in the long term; and Developing Others to ensure you are developing the capability of those around you (including managing upwards!) to achieve the organisation’s goals. These themes are set within the right Mindset (how you think determines how you act) and to achieve defined outcomes (otherwise what’s the point!?).

The Contribution Curve Self-Assessment

The great thing about the contribution curve structure is that you can assess where you are now, where you need to be (to meet your current and future role aspirations) and therefore put a plan in place to get there.

Our contribution curve self-assessment is the place to start and it can be conducted at a team level too - even if you have several hundred people in your department. Assessments can be aggregated at the team, department or organisational level.

Given that you can only improve what you can measure, you start by measuring the capability gap of your people, and then apply the right training interventions to bridge the gap. Targeted, personalised training plans allow you to invest money more wisely, and achieve a better return on investment.   

10 simple questions will identify your current level of contribution and you’ll know which of the competencies you should focus on to play to your strengths and develop your managerial skills.

Get in touch for more information on our contribution self-assessment.

The development of the Contribution Curve

The Contribution Curve tool was developed by the Treehouse team leveraging our many years of serving as managers and leaders in high calibre organisations. It has since been tested and honed in organisations large and small, from BAE Systems to Ogi (a Welsh full fibre broadband provider).

When do you need the Contribution Curve?

How do you know if you need to improve the contribution of your team: here are a few warning signs to look out for in your employee engagement surveys, KPIs and Customer Satisfaction surveys: inefficiency, waste or re-work; a demotivated workforce who appear stressed and frustrated; difficulty in meetings deadlines consistently or overspending budgets (more ambers and reds than greens!); or unsatisfied customers. If any of these ring true, it’s time to make a change.

The programme aims to achieve the following:

Step 1: The right people doing the right things

Managers free up their time by delegating work to the right people. Then they can look further ahead to better plan and prepare for the future, and make longer-term changes in their operating environment. Team Members get an opportunity to learn new skills and develop their knowledge, whilst progressing in their roles to become managers of the future.

Step 2: Motivated people

People in the organisation understand what they are trying to achieve, and do the things they are good at and interested in.

Step 3: Collaboration

Everyone works together to help each other succeed and all customer and supplier relationships work smoothly.

Step 4: Tangible, significant results

This leads to greatly improved communication, engaged and motivated staff, greater efficiency, less waste, better staff retention and most importantly, happy customers.

A typical programme comprises:

Is the Contribution Curve tool applicable to you?

If our Contribution Curve tool is something you’re interested in, or you would like to find out more about the contribution programme, then why not get in touch to see how we can help.