Introduction
According to a 2025 Gartner survey, only 13% of HR leaders believe that succession development is effective in their organizations. This highlights the need for more reliable methods to identify and enhance employee talent, ensuring business continuity and adapting to market challenges.
The Challenges of Measuring Potential
The main challenge in measuring potential lies in the subjectivity of criteria used to predict future performance, as they depend on the perception of those evaluating talent. This often leads to controversies in defining a person’s future potential.
Three Fundamental Aspects for Effective Talent Development
1. Recognizing that individual performance depends on various factors
Current mapping methodologies focus on an individual’s inherent capabilities but overlook the environment in which they apply these skills. Factors like team collaboration and leadership style significantly impact current performance, making it crucial to consider both the individual and their circumstances when assessing growth potential.
2. Associating potential with the ability to respond effectively to new challenges
Traditional methods of defining potential, such as the capacity to grow one or more organizational levels, are subjective and vary by function or business unit size. This lack of standard criteria makes it difficult for executives and evaluators to understand potential clearly.
Many companies have adopted the measurement of “learning agility,” which details expected behaviors and serves as a marker for adaptability and effective responses to new environments. Although still subjective, this approach allows for a more specific translation of business challenges and measures an individual’s capacity to address them.
3. Shifting from career paths to experience maps
The focus on talent development is evolving towards measuring an individual’s (and their environment’s) ability to tackle new role or position challenges effectively. Prioritizing experiences that equip collaborators with crisis management, complex problem-solving, early risk identification skills reduces the likelihood of failure in new positions.
This approach emphasizes preparing collaborators for challenging situations by leveraging real-life experiences. It also considers emotional readiness for handling these issues, which is often a critical yet overlooked factor affecting performance.
With this focus, career paths transform dramatically. Instead of rigid vertical growth ladders, a more agile and flexible design emerges, incorporating key experiences into maps resembling video game levels. These experiences prepare individuals for subsequent challenges.
The advantage of these new talent identification and development approaches is their alignment with evolving business needs. They enable flexible growth, preparing individuals for new and unique challenges driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences.
Key Questions and Answers
- Q: What are the main challenges in measuring talent potential? A: The primary challenge is the subjectivity of criteria used to predict future performance, as they depend on individual evaluators’ perceptions.
- Q: How can we better measure talent potential? A: By considering both the individual and their circumstances, focusing on learning agility, and shifting from traditional career paths to experience maps.
- Q: Why is it important to prepare collaborators for challenging situations? A: Preparing collaborators for difficult scenarios reduces the likelihood of failure in new positions and ensures they can effectively handle real-life challenges.
- Q: How do these new approaches align with business needs? A: These methods enable flexible growth, preparing individuals for new and unique challenges driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences.
