PRACTICAL USE
"Ambition and risk-taking are not easy to develop, but organisational sensitivity often is."

Practical use

The Talent Grid has a variety of practical applications. In assessing potential, the grid can help to determine the directions of development of (future) managers. It can also contribute to an objective approach to the discussion of comparing people, for example in personnel planning and promotion issues. It can be used as a general indication of differences between people (the axes), but also to identify the finer differences (in terms of behaviour) between people. Determining the behavioural characteristics makes it possible to approach the dimensions in an objective and measurable fashion. The manager can form a good impression of his (future) employee through criteria-based interviews and observations. The STAR methodology is often used in this interviewing technique. By posing specific questions on practical examples and specific situations, tasks, activities and results (S.T.A.R.) within those examples, quite accurate conclusions can be drawn regarding the competencies of the applicant or employee. The point is to collect examples of proven past behaviour as a prediction of future behaviour.

Applicability in selection and development

It appears in practice that the behavioural characteristics, which make someone a challenger, are not easy to develop. Seegers confirm this: "Ambition and drive are inherent in your character, if you do not have these characteristics, they are not easy to develop. Vision is intelligence, intellectual ability, and therefore also not easy to train" (P-pers 1998, 3; http://www.output.nl). In contrast, organisational sensitivity is much easier to develop. This means that a competitor can develop into an innovator, while this is far more difficult for the facilitator. Therefore, in the selection of high potentials, it can be recommended that strict selection be done on agreeableness. As long as the candidate has the ability to empathise, it is quite possible to teach organisational sensitivity by specific coaching and training.
The Talent Grid also contains recommendations for the development of management talent. In practice, we often see a competitor, who encounters insurmountable obstacles, become frustrated and eventually want to learn from this experience. He is often told and advised to admit that others are right more often, and to be more flexible in conceding to the wishes of others. It comes down to the fact that the competitor is asked to display more asset behaviour. The competitor then (literally) looks in the wrong direction. Instead of becoming more agreeable, the competitor should actually develop organisational sensitivity.