HIPO EMPLOYEE HOW TO
HIPO EMPLOYEE PROFESSIONAL

Nobody there had heard of her, and she knew little about banking. When Jackie was offered a stretch assignment in the banking division-a promotion to vice president and regional operating officer in Germany, the bank’s second largest European operation-she accepted it, even though the odds were against her. Indeed, her record was as strong-if not stronger-than that of the insiders. The banking side’s desire for new blood and a lack of succession planning in the region positioned her well as an outsider. Her general management skills were highly regarded, and she had a proven track record in financial services within insurance. Jackie started out in the insurance division but wanted to switch to banking, which she perceived as a career path with more room for growth. Look at Jackie Goodwin, a bank executive cited by her HR department as a high potential. That means building trust and confidence among your colleagues and, thereby, influencing a wide array of stakeholders. But you also need to prove your credibility. Competence is the baseline quality for high performance. You’ll never get on a high-potential list if you don’t perform with distinction or if your results come at the expense of someone else. Making your numbers is important, but it isn’t enough. Gaining membership in this elite group starts with three essential elements. That’s the basic anatomy of a high potential. But it’s their intangible X factors that truly distinguish them from the pack. High potentials always deliver strong results, master new types of expertise, and recognize that behavior counts. Moreover, they show a strong capacity to grow and succeed throughout their careers within an organization-more quickly and effectively than their peer groups do.” Anatomy of a High Potential While achieving these superior levels of performance, they exhibit behaviors that reflect their companies’ culture and values in an exemplary manner. “High potentials consistently and significantly outperform their peer groups in a variety of settings and circumstances. However, our research has shown that companies tend to think of the top 3% to 5% of their talent in these terms: Your company may have a different definition or might not even officially distinguish high potentials from other employees. Let’s begin with our definition of a high-potential employee. We’ll look at the specific qualities of managers whose firms identified them as having made the grade.

HIPO EMPLOYEE HOW TO

Think of it as a letter to the millions of smart, competent, hardworking, trustworthy employees who are progressing through their careers with some degree of satisfaction but are still wondering how to get where they really want to go. So you might be asking yourself, “How do I get-and stay-on my company’s high-potential list?” This article can help you begin to answer that question. Self-fulfilling prophecy or great selection? Then, guided by input from HR leaders, we met with and interviewed managers they’d designated as rising stars.ĩ3% of survey respondents said that high potentials get promoted faster than other employees do. We then interviewed HR executives at a dozen of those companies to gain insights about the experiences they provide for high potentials and about the criteria for getting and staying on the list. Most recently we surveyed 45 companies worldwide about how they identify and develop these people.

Either approach has risks: If you don’t make the list public, you might lose your best performers if you opt for transparency, you’ll heighten the expectation of action.įor the past 15 to 20 years, we’ve been studying programs for high-potential leaders. In one case, we witnessed a near riot at a company offsite, where a group of high potentials said they felt “played”-that their status was just a retention tactic, with no real plans to promote them. Otherwise, she may feel manipulated and even lose motivation.

HIPO EMPLOYEE PROFESSIONAL

If you tell someone you view her as a future leader, you need to back that up with tangible progress in her professional development. Nevertheless, making your list of high potentials transparent increases the pressure to do something with the people who are on it. Executives are tired of exit interviews in which promising employees say, “If I had known you had plans for me and were serious about following through, I would have stayed.” Employers, we believe, are coming to see talent as a strategic resource that, like other types of capital, can move around. The percentage of companies that inform high potentials of their status has risen from 70% about a decade ago to 85% today. In our surveys of 45 company policies and in our work with firms during the past 15 to 20 years, we have found a growing trend toward transparency. Whether or not a company should make its list of high potentials transparent is an evergreen question.

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