United NationsManagerial Competency
Leadership — UN competency
Serving as a role model, providing direction and empowering others, and driving change where it is needed.
What this competency means
Leadership in the UN framework emphasises serving as a role model that other people want to follow, empowering others to translate vision into results, being proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives, establishing and maintaining relationships with a broad range of people, and showing courage to take unpopular stands.
Based on the UN Competency Framework
Behavioural indicators
- Serves as a role model that other people want to follow
- Empowers others to translate vision into results
- Is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives
- Establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support
- Anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions
- Drives for change and improvement; does not accept the status quo
- Shows the courage to take unpopular stands
Our interpretation for interview preparation
Behaviours that weaken an answer
- Leads by instruction rather than example
- Avoids conflict until it becomes unmanageable
- Defends the status quo when change is clearly needed
PanelPrep interview guidance
What a strong example might demonstrate
Candidates preparing for competency-based interviews can use this competency to think about a time they moved a group in a direction it was not naturally taking. A strong behavioural example would demonstrate the stand taken, how support was built, and the change achieved.
PanelPrep interview guidance
How to prepare for questions on this competency
Leadership examples usually involve driving change, resolving conflict, or taking a position that was not comfortable.
STAR preparation
- Situation — set the context in two sentences: where, when, who was involved.
- Task — state precisely what you were responsible for, not what the team was responsible for.
- Action — spend most of the answer here, in the first person, showing the indicators above in practice.
- Result — quantify the outcome and add what you learned or changed afterwards.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common interview question patterns
Illustrative patterns written by PanelPrep to help you practise. They are not published or endorsed by UN.
- Tell us about a change you drove against resistance.
- Describe a conflict you resolved within or between teams.
- Give an example of an unpopular position you took.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common mistakes
- Describing formal authority instead of influence
- Choosing an example where nothing actually changed
- Omitting how the people involved were brought along
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The competency name, category and behavioural concepts on this page are based on United Nations, "UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide". Summaries, interview guidance, question patterns and preparation advice are original PanelPrep content.
Framework version: UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide. Source date: 2010-01-01. Last verified: 2026-08-09.
PanelPrep is an independent interview-preparation service. It is not an official website of UN and is not endorsed by or affiliated with UN.