Talent Management - Potential
Leadership Development Review
Beyond the detailed succession plan, the Talent Audit provides data on the health of the Leadership Pipeline. Individual performance measurement should be linked to the business objectives in order to ensure that you have people with the right skills and abilities coming through the organisation to meet the future needs of the business.
A better understanding of the skills and abilities of the existing workforce gives organisations the opportunity to develop its people into key positions; not only does this save on recruitment costs, there are also benefits in terms of employee motivation as staff feel more valued. High potential individuals can be identified early and ‘fast-tracked’ to more senior roles within the organisation. HFI’s Leadership Development Review will also highlight any capabilities or success factors that are not well represented in the organisation and these can be addressed through external recruitment or internal development interventions.
Potential and High Potential Talent
High potential employees are often identified as those individuals with the potential to advance two or more levels within the organisation. Having identified high potential people, companies should then invest in them and give them opportunities to grow and develop. Many methods of identifying high potential are subjective and may be biased - including judgement of the line manger which is likely to be based on current performance; a poor indicator of potential.
A more effective method combines ability testing with the identification of behavioural disposition through personality inventories and motivation. To get the most out of these measures it is critical to be clear which personality characteristics and motivational values are required for a given transition.
Characteristics which Predict High Potential for Leadership
HFI use the following kinds of assessments when looking for high potential through in individuals;
General Reasoning – The level of general reasoning ability indicates the ability to understand and deal with complex concepts and predicts a persons’ speed of learning including the ability to think laterally and logically.
Personality – behavioural tendencies associated with personality traits such as:
- Level of drive and competitiveness
- Curiosity, desire for knowledge, openness to change and new ideas and approaches
- Resilience – likelihood that the individual will be derailed by pressures of high level job
- Flexibility – the ability to change direction when the priorities change and to make decisions in conditions of uncertainty.
- Attention to detail and concern for quality
- Self-confidence and belief in one’s own ability to succeed
- Ability to anticipate future issues and plan for them in a broad way
Motivational Values – These can help us to understand what drives an individual and how ambitious they are likely to be. Someone whose overriding value is security is less likely to achieve a top level business role than someone who seeks challenge and reward.
General management qualities – Some behavioural tendencies such as an interest in others and being a team player may indicate generally good management ability and may well be important at all stages of an individual’s career.
Leadership qualities – Some behavioural tendencies and abilities may be required only at more senior levels of the organisation - strategic thinking for example. Psychometric assessment can identify potential for these higher level abilities even if the individual has not had the opportunity to demonstrate this in their current job role but it is important to take an overview of whole complex pattern of the assessment results not one single measure.
Current performance - Although not a reliable indicator of potential, performance cannot be discounted. Generally competence at the current level could be considered as a minimum prerequisite but there will be occasions when current performance is misleading as an indicator of potential. For example, a highly intellectually able, innovative enterpriser is likely to experience difficulty fitting into the middle manager role and may leave the company before their potential is recognised.
The identification of an individual’s potential is complex and it is impossible to give one single figure because the factors described above all interact. Someone with relatively modest general reasoning ability may have other strengths such as enormous drive and energy or long term experience in a specific area.