Purposeful Talent Development: Many hats, many skills, many opportunities
A skills taxonomy can help you think about what each of your team members could do and help them—and your credit union—reach their fuller potential.
I love the commercial that starts with the line, “Polly Pratz wore many hats.” While the commercial is for an online university, the many hats idea is a wonderful illustration of the many skills a person might have based on many life experiences. And it points to the idea that organizations that care about talent development can benefit from having a skills “taxonomy.”
A skills taxonomy is like a biological taxonomy that classifies plants or animals into kingdom, phylum, class and so on. The difference, of course, is that a skills taxonomy organizes people’s skills. Organizations can use a skills taxonomy to deeply understand the skills of each employee as well as the skills of the organization overall.
Having a skills taxonomy can help your credit union think broadly about what each of your team members can or could do, not just what they do now in their current role. For example, thinking of a person solely as a “teller” likely limits their potential to the tasks a teller currently does. This mindset may get in the way of them being their full selves at work, learning and developing new and useful skills, and even delivering a higher level of performance.
Skills taxonomies can be structured in a variety of useful ways. For example, you might look at skills based on what is needed for success in your organization for leaders, managers or individual contributors. Another way to organize a skills taxonomy is to consider your organization’s overarching vision, mission and goals—and determine what skills will help you achieve them.
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