United NationsManagerial Competency
Managing Performance — UN competency
Setting clear expectations, monitoring progress, giving regular feedback, and addressing performance fairly and promptly.
What this competency means
Managing performance covers delegating clearly, making sure roles and expectations are understood, monitoring progress against milestones, holding regular discussions on performance, appraising performance fairly, and addressing shortcomings and development needs in a timely way.
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Common interview question patterns
- Tell us about a difficult performance conversation you managed.
- Describe how you set and monitored objectives for your team.
- Give an example of how you turned around a struggling performer.
These are illustrative, general questions. Questions asked in an actual interview will depend on the nature and level of the position. PanelPrep · IO can generate questions tailored to the specific vacancy you are applying for, so you can practise against the competencies that matter for your interview.
Practise questions tailored to your vacancy →Based on the UN Competency Framework
Behavioural indicators
- Delegates the appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority
- Makes sure that roles, responsibilities and reporting lines are clear to each staff member
- Accurately judges the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish a task and matches task to skills
- Monitors progress against milestones and deadlines
- Regularly discusses performance and provides feedback and coaching to staff
- Encourages risk-taking and supports creativity and initiative
- Actively supports the development and career aspirations of staff
- Appraises performance fairly
Our interpretation for interview preparation
Behaviours that weaken an answer
- Saves feedback for the annual appraisal
- Avoids difficult performance conversations
- Judges performance on effort rather than agreed results
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What a strong example might demonstrate
Candidates preparing for competency-based interviews can use this competency to think about a performance conversation that was hard to have. A strong behavioural example would demonstrate how expectations had been set, how the conversation was conducted, and what measurable change followed.
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How to prepare for questions on this competency
Panels typically ask about giving difficult feedback, turning around a struggling performer, or setting objectives for a team.
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.
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Common mistakes
- Describing procedure rather than the conversation
- Feedback given only once, with no follow-up
- No measurable outcome for the individual or the unit
Practise Managing Performance related questions tailored to your specific vacancy
Generate a full competency-based mock interview from any vacancy announcement and get scored against the official behavioural indicators.
Start free practiceSource and attribution
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 · IO content.
Framework version: UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide. Source date: 2010-01-01. Last verified: 2026-08-09.
PanelPrep · IO is an independent interview-preparation service. It is not an official website of UN and is not endorsed by or affiliated with UN.