Core competency raised — leader embraces it, excited (6)
I believe the answer is:
heated
'excited' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'core competency raised leader embraces' is the wordplay.
'core' means to look at the middle letters (I've seen 'core of' mean this).
'raised' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'leader' becomes 'head' (head is a kind of leader**).
'embraces' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
The middle of 'competency' is 'et'.
'et' reversed gives 'te'.
'te' put inside 'head' is 'HEATED'.
'it' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for heated that I've seen before include "Angry or warmed" , "fired" , "Furious" , "Angry - passionate" , "Made warm" .)