Leaders develop position profiles to help them determine the specific job requirements needed to achieve goals and objectives. As evident from the position profiles you have seen, each profile begins by identifying the primary purpose or responsibility of the position and continues by listing necessary traits and characteristics individuals must bring to the job. The profile also includes the competencies the individual must be able to demonstrate to do the job well and the work that needs to be produced. A position profile helps the leader define the knowledge, skills, and personal traits and characteristics needed by individuals in that position, in order to fulfill the primary responsibilities at a superior level.

If a leader does a thorough job of developing a plan that has the store's critical short- and long-term objectives stated, and the leader has the necessary position profiles for the store, then the leader's next step is to assess the existing employees to make sure they have the capacity to achieve the store's objectives. It is critically important to the success of a leader to learn how to determine and evaluate the competency gaps for all store positions and team members (employees). The leader answers and completes the following to evaluate the members of the team:

• What areas of competence or strengths must the members of the store team be able to demonstrate in order to achieve objectives?
• If after assessing the members of the team, the leader determines that all members of the team are capable, the next task is to continue setting expectations and gaining commitment from all team members
• If there are apparent gaps in required competencies, the leader must:
  1. Identify the gaps
  2. Determine which gaps can be filled by training or development
  3. Determine if the staffing plan needs to be changed (i.e. move members of the store team into different positions, let team members go, or acquire new talent)

this discussion assignment, refer to course content, outside research on workforce analysis, and the following resources:

• The Dennigee's Case Study leader plan template you developed in Week 3.
• Dennigee's store case study:Case Study - Leading a High Performance Team
• Position Profile for a Team Leader (Assistant Store Manager) Position
• Position Profile for a Team Leader (Store Manager) Position

Refer to the case study and once again assume the role of the Team Leader - Store Manager for the Dennigee's store to complete the following:

1. Identify the gaps. What are the current conditions? Think about people, environment, goals.
2. Determine the best action plan to overcome the gaps in competencies.
3. Select one management position to overcome these performance gaps.
4. Complete theDennigee's Store Team Development Plan template
   • Be sure to include a summary entry for every element.
5. Post your completed development plan for your peers to review.
6. Review at least two of your peers' plans and discuss your thought on their gap analysis and recommendations for action. What would you do similarly/differently, and why? Share your experiences, observations, and resources, if you have them.