What are the biggest mistakes companies make when identifying and developing high-potential employees who may become leaders? What consequences follow from these mistakes and how can these so-called high potentials be managed properly? These questions were recently covered on the Chief Learning Officer website in an interview with Jackie VanBroekhoven of Hogan Assessment Systems, the company focused on psychological assessments of job applicants and employees.
Jackie VanBroekhoven first summarized the mistakes the managers responsible for staff development make when they want to accelerate the development of high potentials. Excessive acceleration is a very serious mistake in this case. It only shows that the company lacks a systematic approach and formal processes for developing employees with high leadership potential.
A lack of continuity
Development programs for high potentials should not be one-off events, but a gradual process.
A lack of feedback
Notifying employees about the fact that they have been chosen as high potentials is not enough. They can be initially excited, but soon start to worry about what it actually means and what is expected of them.
Relying on intuition
Where there is no formal process, high potential employees are identified based solely on managers' intuition. Managers are, however, often unable to assess employees' leadership potential correctly. In many cases, they confuse it with mere arrogance or manipulativeness.
Other interesting comments by Jackie VanBroekhoven were concerning ways to work with talented high-performing employees who lack the potential to become leaders. First of all, however, she summed up a simple rule to identify potential: "Stop relying on subjective evaluations of potential and start crunching numbers. We work in the age of big data. Organizations are sitting on a wealth of information."
Involve big data
Build your high potentials development program on a robust data processing and performance measurement strategy. Your assessment of potential employees to become leaders must stand on objective processing of clearly defined data.
Define potential in a broader context
The definition of potential in your company should be in accordance with your structure of recruitment, remuneration and career development. It should reflect your brand and culture. If these systems contradict each other, they can hardly identify a group of employees who will bring you a significant advantage over the competition.
Do not focus only on leadership potential
Only a minor part of high-performing employees have the potential to become managers. But what about the others? Your company should offer them attractive alternative options. They may fill the talent gaps in the company or become internal consultants within their specializations.
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