PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE IN GR PRACTICE

AALEP believes that GR Practitioners should demonstrate their professional skills by meeting high minimum standards of competency in the field of Government Relations prior to being registered in either a voluntary or mandatory lobby register. It is up to our profession to set out minimum professional standards for persons providing GR  services in order to ensure that consumers of GR services obtain a minimum acceptable level of competence from individuals acting for and on behalf of firms in the provision of advice and associated GR activities. In addition, GR practitioners should be  required to undertake a programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in order to ensure the highest level of professionalism is met.

The public has a right to expect GR Practitioners to demonstrate professional competence throughout their careers. The GR Practitioner is individually responsible and accountable for maintaining professional competence. It is our profession’s responsibility to shape and guide any process for assuring GR Practitioners’ competence.

Assurance of competence is the shared responsibility of the profession, individual GR practitioners, professional GR organizations, employers, and other key stakeholders . AALEP believes the practice of GR competence can be defined, measured, and evaluated.  

Definitions and Concepts Related to Competence

• An individual who demonstrates “competence” is performing at an expected level.
• A competency is an expected level of performance that integrates knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment.
• The integration of knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment occurs in formal, informal, and reflective learning experiences.
• Knowledge encompasses thinking, understanding of policy process, professional standards of practice, and insights gained from context, practical experiences, personal capabilities, and leadership performance.
• Skills include, communication, interpersonal, and strategic skills.
• Ability is the capacity to act effectively. It requires listening, integrity, knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses, positive self-regard, emotional intelligence, and openness to feedback.
• Judgment includes critical thinking, problem solving, ethical reasoning, and decision-making.
• Formal learning most often occurs in structured, academic, and professional development practice environments, while informal learning can be described as experiential insights gained in work, and other settings.
• Reflective learning represents the recurrent thoughtful personal self-assessment, analysis, and synthesis of strengths and opportunities for improvement. Such insights should lead to the creation of a specific plan for professional development and may become part of one’s professional portfolio

The GR Practitioner influences factors that facilitate and enhance competent practice. Similarly, the GR Practitioner seeks to deal with barriers that constrain competent practice. The expected level of performance reflects variability depending upon context and the selected competence framework or model. The ability to perform at the expected level requires a process of lifelong learning.

GR Practitioners must continually reassess their competencies and identify needs for additional knowledge, skills, personal growth, and integrative learning experiences.

Evaluating Competence

Competence in GR practice must be evaluated by the individual GR Practitioners (self-assessment), GR peers, and GR Practitioners in the roles of supervisor, coach, mentor, or preceptor. In addition, other aspects of GR performance may be evaluated by professional colleagues.

Competence can be evaluated by using tools that capture objective and subjective data about the individual’s knowledge base and actual performance and are appropriate for the specific situation and the desired outcome of the competence evaluation . We understand, however, that no single evaluation tool or method can guarantee competence.