{"id":4869,"date":"2021-07-14T09:49:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T09:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/uncategorized\/how-do-we-uncover-talent\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T13:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:58:23","slug":"how-do-we-uncover-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/developing-leaders\/how-do-we-uncover-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"How do we uncover talent throughout the organisation and not just people in the 9-box grid?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the\u00a0third blog of our series exploring developing high potential talent, TPC Leadership UK\u2019s Associate Partner Catherine Bardwell<\/a> and Associate Peter Wall<\/a>\u00a0focus on uncovering talent throughout an organisation, not just those that sit inside the 9-box grid.<\/b><\/p>\n

How do we uncover talent throughout the organisation and not just people in the 9-box grid?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Successful leaders value, inspire and develop all their people. When we allow a proportion of the workforce to be sidelined, we risk demotivating those people and missing the opportunity to develop hidden talent that could enhance our business.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do we nurture and release the talent of everyone in an organisation, instead of only the so-called high potential leaders who stand out and obviously tick all the boxes?<\/span><\/p>\n

TPC Leadership Associate, Peter Wall says a more collaborative, flexible approach is needed and that investment in talent should encompass all employees, regardless of whether they have high potential \u2013 it is the job of the leadership to spot and nurture talent in all their people. Peter asks, \u201cMight it be better to focus on marginal gains and get everyone to be 3% better, than to get a select few to be 10% better?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Think outside the 9-box grid<\/b><\/h2>\n

The 9-box grid is a commonly used talent management tool that helps leaders manage employees in an organisation. The framework allows leaders to map people across nine groups based on their performance and potential. It focuses on two trajectories: how well employees are performing now and how they might perform in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what about those people who don\u2019t conform to the models of the 9-box grid or who slip through the gaps in the net? While the 9-box grid has its place, Peter and TPC Leadership Associate Partner Catherine Bardwell are in favour of a more collective approach, where leaders act as coaches and mentors who challenge and support high potentials, while allowing them to take responsibility for their own journey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 9-box grid relies on the personal judgement of managers who decide which box an employee should be placed within. <\/span>It\u2019s human nature, especially when under pressure, to gravitate towards the familiar \u2013 to seek out and favour personalities who mirror our own.<\/span> With such reliance on opinion there is a risk that decision makers simply produce clones of themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But leaders must put the needs of the business first and think beyond the 9-box grid recipe for developing high potential leaders: everyone has talent and allowing it to shine builds a diverse workforce who provide multiple gains across a business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Promote sideways as well as upwards growth<\/b><\/h2>\n

Catherine and Peter challenge the idea that growth potential should be restricted to climbing a hierarchy. Some talent, as well as some high potential leaders, will enrich gaps in a business by growing sideways rather than upwards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sideways growth presents employees with opportunities to gain different experiences, embrace new challenges and add depth and breadth to their knowledge. Being open to developing people sideways helps to create a culture of growth and empowerment and allows a business to uncover, nurture and make gains from all talent, not just those in the 9-box grid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talent is only ever on loan<\/b><\/h2>\n

If you are to cultivate genuine talent and inspire meaningful growth in all employees, people must be given the space to direct their own path. \u201cIt\u2019s about giving people room to breathe.\u201d says Peter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He takes a close relative\u2019s career journey as an example. Appointed by a large, public sector organisation through their Finance Graduate Scheme, she was talent spotted early on and experienced several rapid promotions. But after a while, she decided she wanted to gain broader experience in a different sector and left the organisation. Her mentor, instead of coaxing her to stay, supported her decision to explore a different path and they kept in touch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, she was enticed back to another more senior role at that same public sector organisation. Having gone with her mentor\u2019s blessing, she returned better equipped, with new experiences, broader skills and different insights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHer mentor embodies the idea that we\u2019ve got our best people on loan\u201d says Peter. \u201cIf talented people want to go, let them, but give them your blessing and embrace them in your network. They may well come back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut even if they don\u2019t, they will speak well of your organisation to others and you\u2019ll get a reputation for nurturing and allowing people to grow, which can make a big difference in a competitive employment market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Encourage personal responsibility<\/b><\/h2>\n

Talent can be uncovered in one organisation but allowed to grow in another. Catherine relates this to the 70-20-10 rule, which determines that people tend to learn 70% of their skills from challenging experiences, 20% from developmental relationships, and 10% from training. Peter\u2019s relative\u2019s mentor saw the value in expanded experience and valued her as part of his network \u2014 and it paid off for both in the longer term.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best mentors encourage people to take responsibility for themselves but they also support and empower them on that journey. The talent identification and development process must move away from the directive approach where leaders and mentors manage people\u2019s careers, towards self-led, experience-based learning and development. \u201cIt\u2019s about asking them the right questions, not giving them what we think are the right answers\u201d says Peter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to uncover talent in your organisation?<\/b> Get in touch<\/a> with us<\/b> to find out how we can help.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the\u00a0third blog of our series exploring developing high potential talent, TPC Leadership UK\u2019s Associate Partner Catherine Bardwell and Associate Peter Wall\u00a0focus on uncovering talent throughout an organisation, not just …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_title":"How do we uncover organisational talent? | Blog | TPC Leadership","rank_math_description":"How do we nurture and uncover talent of everyone in an organisation, instead of only the so-called high potential leaders?","rank_math_focus_keyword":"High Potential","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[61],"featured-blog-post":[],"page-type":[],"class_list":["post-4869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-developing-leaders","tag-high-potential"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"featured-blog-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-blog-post?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/ch-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page-type?post=4869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}