Knowledge
What do I need to understand or know enough about?
Example: Understanding budgeting, a market, legislation or a business model.
Development tools
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Knowledge · Skills · Values · Attitudes
KSVA for Career & Growth
Use KSVA to look beyond qualifications and a generic skills list. See what you already bring, where an opportunity could stretch you and what you still need to understand before deciding what comes next.
Before you start
Four different questions
KSVA becomes useful when the four areas are kept distinct. A gap is not automatically a problem; it may be the growth you are looking for.
Skills
What do I need to be able to do, consistently and in context?
Example: Analysing data, presenting a recommendation or managing a project.
Values
What seems to matter here, and how well does that sit with what matters to me?
Example: Service, experimentation, precision, competition or collaboration.
Attitudes
What stance or approach to the work will help me succeed?
Example: Curiosity, ownership, willingness to ask for feedback or comfort with ambiguity.
Attitude is not personality. This tool is not asking whether you are “the right type of person.” It asks what approach the work appears to need and whether that is an approach you want to bring or develop.
01 · Start
What are you looking at?
Choose the situation that best matches what you want to think through.
The tool will not analyse this automatically. You will decide what matters in the next step.
02 · Build the picture
Add what the opportunity seems to require
Add one requirement at a time. Keep it specific enough that you could point to evidence.
Useful test: “Strong communication” is vague. “Can explain a recommendation to senior stakeholders and respond to questions” is something you can actually examine.
03 · Look across KSVA
What does the pattern tell you?
Do not treat every gap in the same way. Some are realistic development opportunities. Some need more evidence. Some may matter enough to affect your decision.
What I already bring
Growth I would choose
What I need to test
Possible tension
04 · Decide what to do next
Turn the reflection into action
The aim is not to declare the opportunity “good” or “bad.” Decide what you need to do next to make a better-informed choice.
05 · Return & review
What did you find out?
Come back after you have tried one of your next actions, spoken to someone, researched the opportunity or tested an assumption. New evidence should be allowed to change your view.
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