SPIEGEL: Ms. Struss, you analyzed the data of 1000 customers and came to the conclusion that high school graduates with a three-point average grade are more empathetic, flexible, enthusiastic and fairer than one-person high-flyers. Are bad students the better employees?
Ragnhild Struss: You can not say that. We should finally stop thinking in mono-causal contexts. In my career counseling, for example, the question often comes up: Am I suitable for a leadership position? It's not about whether I can lead, but about the question: How can I best use my individual potential?
SPIEGEL: But the answer is the same: for one, a leadership position is suitable, for the other one not.
Struss: The key difference is that I focus on people. Everyone has different talents that they can use to succeed. We work with a personality test, which consists of 34 talents, which are most pronounced. For example, if authority is in 32nd place, that does not mean that I can not be authoritarian. It just means that in everyday life I tend to access other talents.
SPIEGEL: And the intensity with which I access the talents correlates with my graduation grade?
Struss: Yes. Good grades basically just say that someone is disciplined and hardworking. I do not ask for scores to be scrapped, but we should also acknowledge the talents that they do not reproduce, such as empathy, flexibility and enthusiasm. I often have wonderful teenagers in front of me who have a very bad self-image - just because their grades are not good. Notes do not say anything about your own value.
SPIEGEL: But you decide who can study which subject.
Struss: There are always ways and means to reach a goal. For example, anyone who wants to study psychology and fails in Germany on the numerus clausus can go to the Netherlands. Or to a private university. Number clausus, money, distance, time - these are all externally set standards that should not stop anyone. We should stop educating our children to inner helplessness and instead encourage them to find out who they are.
SPIEGEL: With personality tests?
Struss: Yes, for example. Young people in particular are so focused on school grades that they can not name their actual talents. Most are missing someone who tells them: You are a great networker! Or: you can empathize with others so well! And yet it is precisely those skills that will count in the working world of the future. It will no longer be about who can do the work, but who they would like to work with.
SPIEGEL: And how should the school show that?
Struss: One could, for example, expand the school subject canon and introduce a subject such as communication. And above all train teachers in giving more differentiated feedback. Why is not the Abi certificate given a page describing the talents? That would also be a great help for employers.
