Competence
What you know. Five scenarios to show you how you show up at the next level, not just the one you are in.
The Expert in the Room
You are a senior manager leading a cross-functional project. A VP from another division joins your working session and begins proposing a solution that you know from experience will create serious downstream problems your team will own. She is well-regarded, confident, and several levels above you. The rest of the room is nodding along.
What do you do?
Beyond the Task
Your team just completed a six-week project that came in on time and within budget. You are presenting the results to your leadership team. You have solid data on what was delivered, hours spent, and internal process improvements made.
How do you open your presentation?
Two Bosses, One Answer
You are a director managing a team of eight. Two senior stakeholders, both with authority over your work, are asking for opposite things by the same deadline. One wants a detailed risk analysis. The other wants a fast-moving prototype to show the board. You do not have the capacity to do both well. Neither stakeholder knows about the conflict.
What is your move?
The Incomplete Picture
Your team is three days from a major client deliverable. A team member flags that one element of the work is built on data that may be unreliable. Investigating fully would take at least a week. You cannot get a clear answer from leadership. Delivering as-is carries risk. Delaying means breaking a commitment to the client and your company.
What do you do?
The Quarter That Got Hard
You are six weeks into a quarter. Two of your strongest team members are out unexpectedly, a key vendor missed a critical deadline, and an unplanned priority just landed from leadership. You are behind on your own commitments. Your skip-level asks for a status update in a casual hallway conversation.
How do you respond?
You finished Competence.
What you just did matters. Most people never slow down long enough to examine their instincts. You did. That is where growth actually starts.
Building your personalized 70-20-10 development plan...
Development Plan
Your 70-20-10 Development Plan
Competence Pillar | Luminary Method
What is the 70-20-10 Model?
Most development plans live in the 10. A course, a workshop, a certification. And while those things matter, research tells us they account for only about 10% of how people actually grow in their careers. The 70-20-10 model was developed by researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership and has been used by learning and development professionals for decades. Here is what it says: 70% of your growth happens on the job. Stretch assignments, new challenges, high-stakes moments, and decisions you have never had to make before. This is where capability is actually built. 20% comes from people. Feedback, observation, mentorship, and relationships with people who are ahead of you or willing to tell you the truth. Growth accelerates when you are learning from someone, not just alongside them. 10% comes from formal learning. Courses, books, workshops, and structured programs like this one. The 10 creates the framework. The other 90 is where you live it. This plan is designed to work across all three. Not just to give you something to read, but to give you something to do.
Read it. Work it. Come back to it.
This is not a document to file away. It is a working tool. Your development plan was built from the choices you made and the thinking you shared in your Competence scenario training. It reflects where your instincts are strong and where there is room to grow. That is not a judgment. It is a starting point. Read it once all the way through without a pen in hand. Let it land. Then go back and pick one thing from each section — one experience to seek out, one relationship to activate, one thing to read or practice. Just one from each. The goal is not to overhaul how you show up overnight. It is to make one intentional shift at a time and notice what changes. Come back to this plan in 30 days. What have you tried? What worked? What did you avoid, and why? That reflection is part of the development too.
Experience: What to Seek Out
Generating your personalized recommendations...
Relationships: Who to Learn From
Generating your personalized recommendations...
Practice: What to Study and Try
Generating your personalized recommendations...
Language That Works
These are not scripts to memorize. They are starting points — language you can make your own and practice until it feels natural. Each one addresses a real situation that comes up for senior managers and directors who are building their visibility with leadership. Read them. Try them out loud. Adjust the words until they sound like you.