At a recent professional conference I attended there was a lot of talk about high potentials. Specifically, how to best measure potential versus actual performance (good luck getting managers to understand the difference). The idea of identifying high potentials (HiPos) is critical for a couple of reasons:
- If you are going to do good succession planning, you need to look at people based on their potential to be leaders at the next level (or for the first time) and not just how well they are doing in the current position.
- Investing training dollars in HiPos will give you a much better return than the investment in lower performers. High performers got that way because they are continuous learners who welcome feedback.
But, do companies really do a good job of identifying HiPos? This article suggests that they do not. Using 360 feedback as a metric, the authors conclude that many of those selected into HiPo programs are not rated well on important leadership dimensions. How does this happen?
- Companies use the wrong data to identify HiPos. Our tendency is to use current performance to determine future performance. And, if looking at a person’s potential in that job, this would be the best predictor. But, it is not a good predictor if you’re trying to determine if a great individual contributor will be a good manager, or if a good manager will be a good executive. The skill sets are too different.
- I allude to it above, but companies place too much weight on factors that are not related to potential. I understand that it is hard to put blinders on and only focus on those attributes that would indicate success in another role (e.g., strategic thinking), but it is critical to do so in identifying HiPos.
The best way to combat this is to identify future success factors, such as strategic thinking and developing effective followers, in your organization. If succession planners are presented with only this type of relevant data (as opposed to everything that might come out of a 360 or assessment center), it is more likely that those with the highest potential will be put into the HiPo pool.