Introduction
In the past, learning was once-and-done — people trained for a single career and rarely needed to reskill. Today, rapid scientific and technological change means lifelong learning is essential.
Knowledge alone quickly becomes outdated. What matters most now are meta-skills: the capacity to adapt, learn, and thrive in evolving environments. These include:
Knowing how to learn
Being able to change one’s mind
Harnessing input from others
Building social and emotional competencies
Such skills help people:
Cope effectively with life and well-being
Learn and adapt in changing environments
Succeed in the workplace
Build stronger relationships
The OECD defines them as:
“Individual capacities that can be (a) manifested in consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, (b) developed through formal and informal learning experiences, and (c) important drivers of socio-economic outcomes throughout the individual’s life.”
(Chernyshenko, Kankaras & Drasgow, 2018)
Defining a taxonomy of social & emotional skills
The Big Five model of personality (Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness) provides a widely accepted taxonomy for social and emotional skills (Strus & Cieciuch, 2017).
Traits are consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Skills are functional capacities — what a person is capable of doing when needed.
The Core Drivers Diagnostic helps individuals gain awareness of their Big Five dimensions through a reliable, valid psychometric tool.
Research consistently links Big Five domains to career success, health, and well-being. For example:
Conscientiousness predicts job performance (Roberts et al., 2007; Sackett & Walmsley, 2014).
Extraversion predicts leadership and customer service effectiveness (Judge et al., 2002).
Openness predicts adaptability and innovation (Marinova et al., 2015).
Agreeableness predicts career success (Judge et al., 2012).
Emotional Stability predicts resilience and life satisfaction (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998).
Comparative models of social & emotional skills
OECD Model of Social & Emotional Skills
The OECD framework (2021) aligns with the Big Five but focuses on facets rather than broad domains. Facets:
Predict outcomes more accurately
Align better with observable behaviors
Capture nuances hidden by broad traits
Provide a sharper focus for interventions
The OECD identifies 15 key skills across Big Five domains.
Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills (BESSI) Inventory
Soto et al. (2022) introduced the BESSI to unify competing models. It defines skills in five domains:
Social Engagement Skills – engaging with others
Cooperation Skills – maintaining positive relationships
Self-Management Skills – achieving goals effectively
Emotional Resilience Skills – regulating emotions
Innovation Skills – embracing new ideas and experiences
These skill domains meaningfully predict academic achievement, occupational interests, social relationships, and well-being.
The Great Eight
Developed by SHL (Kurz & Bartram, 2002), The Great Eight is a work-focused competency model derived from the Big Five.
Tier 1: 110 component competencies
Tier 2: 20 competency dimensions
Tier 3: 8 broad factors (“The Great Eight”)
Validated across organizations, the model shows that variance in competency can be explained by Big Five traits and cognitive ability (Bartram, 2005).
Personality Circumplex of Meta-Traits
[Cieciuch & Strus (2017)] developed a circumplex model combining Big Five traits into eight meta-traits. This approach highlights dynamic interactions and aligns with competency frameworks like BESSI and the Great Eight.
The Deeper Signals Capability Model
Building on these frameworks, Deeper Signals developed a capability model tailored for organizations.
Methodology
Competency descriptions from existing models were abstracted by PhD-level psychologists.
Independent coding identified overlaps and reduced duplication.
Discrepancies were resolved through review.
Final competencies were mapped to three organizational levels:
Leading Self
Leading Others
Leading Projects
Capability domains
Table 3: Describing each of the competencies in the Deeper Signals Capability Model
Level | Capability | Description |
Leading Self | Self-control | Regulating one's feelings and urges to maintain an even demeanor. |
| Resilience | Managing stress well and bouncing back from setbacks. |
| Adapting to Change | Remaining flexible and adaptable as circumstances and people change. |
| Optimism & Positivity | Remaining upbeat and energized by what is going on. |
| Persistence & Drive | Showing grit and energy to achieve goals and outcomes. |
| High Standards | Catching errors, being diligent and sustaining quality. |
| Accountability | Owning deadlines and accepting responsibility. |
Leading Others | Persuading & Influencing | Turning others towards one's own point of view and gaining their commitment to act. |
| Building networks | Establishing positive relationships with a wide circle. |
| Building trust | Demonstrating integrity, reliability, and competence. |
| Customer focus | Wanting to help customers and being considerate of their needs. |
| Sales focus | Getting people to commit to buy products and services. |
| Teamwork & Collaboration | Working well with others to achieve a task. |
| Coaching & Mentoring | Offering feedback and guidance for others to perform better. |
| Inspiring Others | Creating a picture of a future others want to be part of. |
| Giving Feedback | Providing a constructive critique of an other’s performance. |
| Inclusion | Being open to input, collaboration and engagement from anyone, regardless. |
| Communication | Sharing information in ways that encourage others to listen and hear. |
Leading Projects | Planning & Organizing | Being logical, ordered and disciplined when undertaking tasks. |
| Goal Setting | Setting and striving for a desired outcome or end point. |
| Leadership | Setting a mission and gaining other's commitment to work together. |
| Delegating | Assigning tasks and responsibilities to others. |
| Anticipating Problems | Being alert to issues and risks. |
| Problem-Solving | Analyzing causes and generating ideas to fix what has gone wrong. |
| Forming Strategies | Analyzing trends and generating alternate pathways to create advantage. |
| Learning & Understanding | Adjusting behavior in the light of new information or feedback. |
| Creating & Innovating | Generating ideas and changing existing approaches or technologies. |
| Judgement | Making timely decisions on the basis of situational awareness, logic and professional knowledge. |
Using the Deeper Signals Capability Model
The Capability Model is powered by the Core Drivers and Core Values diagnostics. Using validated algorithms, we provide organizations with:
Employee-level insights: Individual feedback reports and Learning Journeys
Team-level analytics: Competency dashboards to highlight gaps and strengths
Enterprise-level tools: Custom benchmarks, candidate comparisons, and predictive insights
Customization
If your organization already has a competency model, our psychologists can:
Interview leaders to align with company culture and success factors.
Run a leadership survey keyed to our validated framework.
The result: a customized competency model mapped onto Core Drivers and Core Values, backed by validation research and tested for fairness (no adverse impact across gender, age, or ethnicity).
References
Ashton, M. C. (1998). Personality and job performance: The importance of narrow traits. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 19(3), 289-303.
Bartram, D. (2005). The Great Eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation. Journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1185-1203.
Chernyshenko, O. S., Kankaraš, M., & Drasgow, F. (2018). Social and emotional skills for student success and well-being: Conceptual framework for the OECD study on social and emotional skills. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Cieciuch, J., & Strus, W. (2021). Toward a model of personality competencies underlying social and emotional skills: Insight from the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits. Frontiers in Psychology, 4891.
DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: a meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological bulletin, 124(2), 197-229.
Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T. (2012). Hard evidence on soft skills. Labour economics, 19(4), 451-464.
Hogan, R., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Kaiser, R. B. (2013). Employability and career success: Bridging the gap between theory and reality. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 6(1), 3-16.
Hurtz, G. M., & Donovan, J. J. (2000). Personality and job performance: The Big Five revisited. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 869–879.
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: a qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 765-780.
Judge, T. A., Livingston, B. A., & Hurst, C. (2012). Do nice guys—and gals—really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on income. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102(2), 390-407.
Kurz, R., & Bartram, D. (2002). Competency and individual performance: Modelling the world of work. Organizational effectiveness: The role of psychology, 227-255.
Lippman, L. H., Ryberg, R., Carney, R., & Moore, K. A. (2015). Workforce Connections: Key “soft skills” that foster youth workforce success: toward a consensus across fields. Washington, DC: Child Trends.
Marinova, S. V., Peng, C., Lorinkova, N., Van Dyne, L., & Chiaburu, D. (2015). Change-oriented behavior: A meta-analysis of individual and job design predictors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, 104-120.
Organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2021). Beyond academic learning first results from the survey of social and emotional skills. OCED.
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The Power of Personality. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(4), 313–345.
Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Taking skills seriously: Toward an integrative model and agenda for social, emotional, and behavioral skills. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(1), 26-33.
Strus, W., & Cieciuch, J. (2017). Towards a synthesis of personality, temperament, motivation, emotion and mental health models within the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits. Journal of Research in Personality, 66, 70-95.
Tackett, J. L. (2006). Evaluating models of the personality–psychopathology relationship in children and adolescents. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(5), 584-599.