You probably have an intuitive sense of “what good looks like” in critical jobs in your organisation. Yet, you also know that creating a blueprint for success is a complex task that requires careful consideration.
A Success Profile is a document that defines the skills, experiences and personal attributes an individual needs to perform successfully in a specific job or at a particular level of leadership.
More than a job description that defines tasks and responsibilities, a Success Profile captures the “essence” of what makes for outstanding performance in the context of the job, its business environment and the organisation’s strategic direction.
Many organisations recognise the multiple benefits of well-defined Success Profiles. They use them to ensure people have the right skills and behaviours for their roles and to provide a framework for attracting and developing talent and growing leaders for the future.
Individuals also benefit from a clear definition of what is needed to perform well in their roles. It helps them work on building capability in what matters most for their success and make better choices about their career advancement.
Inside Success Profiles
Understanding the knowledge, skills and experience that equip a person to perform well in a job is essential for recruiting top talent, but these alone are not enough. A person’s work preferences, style and core motivations determine how they approach the job. Therefore, Success Profiles must take a “whole person” perspective when defining what is necessary for success.
The Korn Ferry Institute has drawn on decades of research to catalogue the many and varied elements of talent and organise them into a four-dimension model against which to create Success Profiles:
- Competencies – the observable and measurable skills required for success at work.
- Experiences – the jobs and assignments that shape what a person has been able to do and learn.
- Traits – the personality characteristics that notably influence a person’s behaviour.
- Drivers – the values and interests that inspire a person’s career preferences.
The power of the model is evident in the science behind it. In addition to predicting differences in performance, the elements in these four dimensions are positively correlated with engagement, commitment, retention and leadership potential.
When used for one or two purposes, say recruitment or promotion, Success Profiles provide benefits to any business. However, when job success factors are integrated throughout an organisation’s people processes, they reinforce each other and contribute to a strong culture and high-performance standards.
Creating Success Profiles
Our process for creating a Success Profile starts with gathering information on your organisation’s goals and the business landscape in which you operate. It’s crucial to consider the context of the job because the skills and attributes that are important for success in a job vary from one organisation to another.
To understand the nature and purpose of the job to be profiled, we interview key stakeholders who know it well and understand how it needs to evolve in the future. Then, we collate the data we have gathered, analysing and validating it against comprehensive research data.
The requisite competencies, experiences, personality characteristics and motivational drivers for leadership are selected, using benchmarks for successful leaders at the appropriate leadership level.