We know how challenging it can be at times to keep track of core competencies, so we’ve compiled the full list here in one central place. Ideally this post will satisfy any curiosities you might have about the complete list of universal core competencies, however, if you should have any questions, please feel free to contact us or click here.

What is a universal core competency?

A universal core competency is a noun that refers to one's capacity to demonstrate an ability or a skill. Applicable in almost any aspect of life, a universal core competency is useful in, yet unrestricted by the context of a specific job or job function. (The Academic Glossary) In this post, we will explore each of the 95 universal core competencies, and exactly what they mean.

Here is the complete list of universal core competencies.

Explore courses at SEA designed to help develop universal core competencies at the end of the list.

1. Ability to Follow Directions

   1. One's capacity for aligning one's actions with the instructions or the requests of another person, especially in a professional, medical, religious, governmental or academic setting.

2. Accountability for Others

   1. One's capacity for actively embracing responsibility for the actions of others under one's management (i.e. team, class and family members).

3. Accountability for Self

   1. One's capacity for actively embracing responsibility for one's own actions.

4. Accurate Listening

   1. One's capacity for exercising a willingness to hear what others are actually saying instead of what one believes others will or should say, or what one believes others may have meant.

5. Admonishing Others

   1. One's capacity for confronting inconsistency, innacurracy, controversy and dishonesty, especially in interpersonal relationships.

6. Aesthetic Awareness

   1. One's capacity for demonstrating an awareness of and conscious skill with visual composition and perceived beauty in nature and/or design.

7. Attention to Detail

   1. One's capacity for displaying an ability to perceive and communicate various different parts of something.

8. Awareness of Motivational Needs

   1. One's capacity for perceiving, understanding and communicating that which drives a person to take action towards a goal or a directive.

9. Awareness of Others

   1. One's capacity for seeing beyond one's self to observe and understand the existence, the objective qualities, the needs and the interests of others.

10. Awareness of Self

    1. One's capacity for observing and understanding one's own existence, objective qualities, individual needs and interests.

11. Balanced Decision Making

    1. One's capacity for objectively evaluating available options against desired objectives and potential outcomes, and selecting a course of action with confidence and resolve.

12. Belongingness

    1. One's capacity for being or feeling they are a part of a particular group.

13. Collaboration

    1. One's capacity for cooperating and taking action with others, especially in the process or the creation of something.

14. Commitment

    1. One's capacity for developing and maintaining loyalty, especially to a task or a person.

15. Commitment to the Task at Hand

    1. One's capacity for maintaining loyalty to carrying out the responsibilities of the role that was assigned, especially in a professional, academic, religious or governmental setting.

16. Communication

    1. One's capacity for expressing one's own thoughts and ideas in an effective manner.

17. Competitiveness

    1. One's capacity for developing and maintaining skills and competencies that are objectively superior to those of one's peers.

18. Comprehension

    1. One's capacity for practising the ability to understand.

19. Conceptual Thinking

    1. One's capacity for successfully evaluating abstract and nonlinear ideas, processes and organisations in an accurate and dependable manner.

20. Concrete Thinking

    1. One's capacity for understanding and managing immediate, tangible and common needs, facts, thoughts and ideas.

21. Consistency and Reliability

    1. One's capacity for developing a dependable work ethic in such life areas inclusive of personal, academic, religious and professional commitments.

22. Conveying Role Value

    1. One's capacity for leveraging a myriad of skills and individual contributions to effectively communicate the significance of a particular job to the organisation.

23. Creativity

    1. One's capacity for applying the use of one's imagination or original thoughts and ideas, especially in the production of art.

24. Customer Oriented Mindset

    1. One's capacity for placing their focus on the patron of a business, especially in an effort to ensure satisfaction with the goods and services provided by the business.

25. Data Analysis

    1. One's capacity for demonstrating skillfulness in managing and interpreting data in an accurate and timely manner.

26. Developing Others

    1. One's capacity for leveraging a conscious awareness of the needs, interests, skills and competencies of others to effectively influence growth and improvement, especially in their professional or academic performance.

27. Directing Emotions

    1. One's capacity for managing one's relationships with various different feelings in order to make more objective observations and rational decisions, especially when faced with stressful or otherwise high pressure situations.

28. Empathy

    1. One's capacity for observing, understanding and actively sharing the feelings and perspectives of others.

29. Evaluating Others

    1. One's capacity for accurately and objectively observing, understanding and communicating the performance and impact of others based on their words and actions.

30. Flexibility

    1. One's capacity for demonstrating an ability and a willingness to adapt or respond to change with minimal resistance.

31. Foresight

    1. One's capacity for taking action on the estimation of what will happen or be needed in the future.

32. Goal Oriented Mindset

    1. One's capacity for maintaining focus on and taking definitive action towards a desired or expected end, regardless of their circumstance.

33. Humility

    1. One's capacity for viewing one's self without pride or arrogance.

34. Impartiality

    1. One's capacity for exercising fairness in dealing with others without the conscious use of explicit or implicit bias.

35. Initiative

    1. One's capacity for making decisions and taking action before or without the direction or input of others.

36. Integrative Ability

    1. One's capacity for being able and willing to observe and communicate various different factors of a situation in order to better understand the situation as a whole, especially when solving a problem.

37. Integrity

    1. One's capacity for maintaining internal consistency and employing the practise of truthfulness in one's words and actions.

38. Internal / Personal Commitment

    1. One's capacity for developing and maintaining loyalty, specifically within one's self and without external influences.

39. Interpersonal Relationships

    1. One's capacity for developing and maintaining prolonged positive connections with other people.

40. Intuitive Decision Making

    1. One's capacity for an ability to accurately judge a situation and resolve to take action without conscious reasoning.

41. Leadership of Others

    1. One's capacity for organising, influencing and directing others.

42. Literacy

    1. One's capacity for reading and writing, demonstrating competence.

43. Long Term Planning

    1. One's capacity for identifying goals that may be accomplished over an extended period of time, and devising intelligent plans to reach their objectives.

44. Objective Listening

    1. One's capacity for hearing what others have to say without employing the use of explicit or implicit bias.

45. Observation of Others

    1. One's capacity for watching and listening to others in an objective manner in order to develop a fuller understanding of their identity, their ability and their performance.

46. Organisation

    1. One's capacity for taking an efficient and orderly approach to a task.

47. Persistence

    1. One's capacity for maintaining a goal oriented mindset, getting back up to try again, especially after facing adversity and failure.

48. Personal Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something.

49. Personal Relationships

    1. One's capacity for building and maintaining interpersonal connections outside the structure of a professional, academic, religious or governmental setting.

50. Persuading Others

    1. One's capacity for influencing others to think, speak or act in any particular way.

51. Political Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something related to a policy that will have an impact in the lives of others.

52. Positive Attitude

    1. One's capacity for consciously employing a thought process that encourages the production of confidence and clarity in real life experiences through words and actions.

53. Practical Thinking

    1. One's capacity for determining how one might adapt to or change their environment in order to pursue and accomplish a goal.

54. Presence

    1. One's capacity for being physicially, mentally and emotionally present, without being distracted by what was or what is to come.

55. Proactive Thinking

    1. One's capacity for contemplating the implications of a current course of action to better understand and communicate what might happen as a result of the decisions one makes.

56. Problem / Situation Analysis

    1. One's capacity for observing, understanding, prioritising and communicating various different components of a situation or adverse circumstance.

57. Problem Management

    1. One's capacity for accurately contextualising problematic words, events and activities, so as to better understand what is happening in any particular situation.

58. Problem Solving Ability

    1. One's capacity for understanding and communicating an issue, contemplating and communicating potential solutions, and taking definitive action towards resolving the issue at hand.

59. Project Scheduling

    1. One's capacity for effectively handling one's schedule and actions to ensure they are exactly where they need to be when they need to be there, especially in the context of an event or a project.

60. Quality Oriented Mindset

    1. One's capacity for focusing on the value or condition of a project, product or service, with a commitment to rid the item of any flaws.

61. Realistic Expectations

    1. One's capacity for believing in an objectively reasonable or practical potential outcome, especially with one's self or with other people.

62. Realistic Goal-Setting for Others

    1. One's capacity for developing immediate, seasonal, short-term or long-term objectives that are actionable, practical and relevant to the abilities and interests of others.

63. Realistic Personal Goal-Setting

    1. One's capacity for developing immediate, seasonal, short-term or long-term objectives that are actionable, practical and relevant to one's own abilities and interests.

64. Rejection Management

    1. One's capacity for navigating the experience of being refused or otherwise told no, especially as it relates to maintaining composure and making balanced decisions.

65. Resourcefulness

    1. One's capacity for discovering efficient solutions to various different problems.

66. Respect for Policies

    1. One's capacity for honouring an established set of rules and guidelines, especially in a professional, academic, religious or governmental setting.

67. Respect for Property

    1. One's capacity for honouring that which belongs to others.

68. Results Oriented Mindset

    1. One's capacity for focusing on the outcome of one's words and actions, including the accuracy and the timeliness of one's performance.

69. Role Awareness

    1. One's capacity for observing and understanding one's own position, potential and performance in the world or the environment they currently occupy, including any expectations one may be responsible for meeting.

70. Role Confidence

    1. One's capacity for belieiving in one's own ability to succeed in their current position, in any area of life.

71. Satisfaction of Standards

    1. One's capacity for demonstrating sufficient understanding of performance requirements, and meeting those requirements with the results of one's own words and actions.

72. Selection

    1. One's capacity for narrowing from a wider range of options.

73. Self Confidence

    1. One's capacity for believing and trusting in one's own abilities, qualities and judgement.

74. Self Control

    1. One's capacity for maintaining responsibility for and authority over one's own beliefs, words and actions.

75. Self Esteem

    1. One's capacity for perceiving and respecting one's own inherent value.

76. Self-Assessment

    1. One's capacity for observing, understanding and accurately judging the quality of one's own skills and abilities based on their performance.

77. Self-Direction

    1. One's capacity for exercising authority and initiative over one's self .

78. Self-Discipline and Sense of Duty

    1. One's capacity for making values-based decisions instead of being led by one's emotions, especially when faced with situations that encourage impulsivity or emotional distress.

79. Self-Expression

    1. One's capacity for sharing one's own thoughts, feelings and ideas with others, especially in writing, art, music or dance.

80. Self-Improvement

    1. One's capacity for taking definitive action towards enhancing one's own knowledge, status or character.

81. Sense of Timing

    1. One's capacity for accurately perceiving and assessing information in a way that allows one to make decisions and take action in a timely manner.

82. Sensitivity to Others

    1. One's capacity for communicating and understanding the feelings and perspectives of others while maintaining balance in one's own decision making and thought process.

83. Social Awareness

    1. One's capacity for accurately perceiving and understanding the nonverbal communications of others.

84. Social Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something related to serving and connecting with others.

85. Specificity

    1. One's capacity for being able to communicate clearly with reference to key or concrete details and resources.

86. Stress Management

    1. One's capacity for handling difficult or high pressure situations without being controlled by one's own emotions.

87. Surrenderance of Control

    1. One's capacity for participating in events under the authority or direction of others.

88. Theoretical Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something related to the application of specialised knowledge and intellectual growth.

89. Theoretical Problem Solving

    1. One's capacity for contemplating potential solutions to hypothetical issues.

90. Traditional / Regulatory Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something related to principle.

91. Truthfulness

    1. One's capacity for committing to and actively practising honesty, to the extent that one would demonstrate a significant level of respect for clarity, structure and consistency for one's self, one's interpersonal relationships, and the larger society.

92. Urgency

    1. One's capacity for taking immediate action.

93. Use of Common Sense

    1. One's capacity for applying sound judgement to practical matters.

94. Utilitarian / Economic Drive

    1. One's capacity for feeling and adhering to a compulsion to achieve or accomplish something when one can expect to be rewarded for the investment of one's time, talent and resources.

95. Versatility

    1. One's capacity for adapting to various different functions.

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