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Dexterity | Catalyst
“Many of the critical ‘skills’
needed are in fact behaviours –
emotional intelligence or a growth
mindset, for example”
20 or 30 years, there are lots of industries that
have disappeared,” he notes. “Kodak has virtually
disappeared, and a lot of large tech companies have
been born in the past five to 10 years. It’s a rapidly
changing world and it’s not about pre-defined roles
that exist for any length of time.”
He adds that “people want variety and to know that
they’re going to progress”.
Attitudes and behaviours
Some organisations are starting to think along
these lines. Brooke Firestine, US talent-acquisition
manager at Rolls-Royce, gives the example of a
new factory that the company agreed to build in
Virginia. The leadership team sought to attract
solution-orientated team members who were
adaptable and not afraid to voice their opinions on
process-improvement opportunities. By shifting
attention towards attitudes and behaviours, the
business felt it would benefit by building a more
engaged and resilient workforce.
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“When we set up that site, I supported them by
looking at assessment tools they could use to suss out
which individuals demonstrated these behaviours,”
he says. “There would be the standard interview but
then a couple of other things that were specific to
this group. We gave them information before the
assessment on general business matters and we asked
them questions about that, so we could understand
if they actually did their homework. That was a
marker of whether they had a willingness to go above
and beyond.
“Then we had group exercises, where we would
bring five or six candidates together and ask them
to solve a problem, so we could see how they
communicated and assess their time-management
skills, and whether they did the exercise in a way
that was in keeping with our focus on team work,
problem solving and creativity. That is very difficult
to determine from a CV.”
The precise skills organisations require will depend
on the nature of the individual company and its plans
for the future, but most businesses will need both
operational and character-led interpersonal skills.
The latter are becoming increasingly important,
Klemich says.
“Our Heartstyles Indicator research, which
attracted more than 100,000 responses, shows that
individuals rated ‘very high’ by others, in terms of
work effectiveness, have character-led skills,” he
says. “Such thinking and behaviours include being
highly authentic, strongly achievement-driven,
reliable while open to feedback, effective in relating
to others, and having the ability to encourage and
develop others.
“These individuals appear to be able to learn new
skills and bring their ‘transferable’ skills of effective
character into any role,” he adds. “As they are usually
also humble, focused on self-development, hungry
to learn and gain know-how from others, they tend
to gather people together rather than polarise them.”
He admits that this kind of character-led