High performing employees are vital in any organization and, when identified, prove to be extremely valuable leaders. By developing a high potential employee (HiPo) program, you can create an environment that encourages meaningful learning, developing these employees into future leaders of your company.
An expert in creating leaders, Dr Gail details the vital pieces and best practices in developing a robust and successful HiPo program within your organization.
1. Link Your HiPo Program to Your Business Strategy
With the CEO as champion, the HiPo program gets linked directly to business strategy, and becomes a priority for the Board of Directors.
When you start with this approach, your HiPo program has the best chance of succeeding in the long term. Linking your human capital strategies to the business strategy means you sit at the table when discussions impact succession, leader requirements, and development. Having your CEO lead the charge signals to your HiPos – the program matters, has profile and teeth. Putting your CEO and senior executives front and center assures your HiPo program remains relevant after the initial launch halo dims.
2. Align to All Four Talent Management Activities
Aligned to mission, values, vision, policies, and integral to all four major talent management activities – Recruitment, Selection, Development/Performance Management and Succession Planning, with disciplined process management.
When you thoughtfully plan and build in stickiness through opportunities to lead, you create leadership bench strength.
3. Plan to Mix Your Internal Talent Globally
Be inclusive and sensitive to generational differences in values, benefits and requirements.
HiPos are your global leaders. Remember, companies don’t go global – people do. HiPos often come with multiple languages and an interest in global assignment development and opportunities for polish. When developing your leaders, avoid starting and remaining a localized pilot. Keep the long-view to roll out across your entire organization. When you execute the long-term plan leadership development, you can train and transfer HiPos enterprise wide.
4. Anticipate Business Needs by Engaging HiPos in Your Strategies & Plans
Build leadership capacity to anticipate current and future business needs by engaging HiPos in business strategy and operationalizing plans.
Develop talent for the timeframe anticipated in the strategic plan. Build critical skills in HiPos to eliminate the high cost of recruiting and bringing in experienced leaders with these skill sets. Get Talent Development to set hard targets for internal recruitment into strategically visible roles. Show every HiPo that their investment will pay off with high profile future roles. Consider your internal pool first, as it reinforces you becoming the HIPo magnet and underscores your ongoing commitment to their development. A big Win/Win!
5. Remember that Your HiPos Are Organizational Assets
HiPos are organizational assets rather than owned by one business unit so the interests of the organization trump individual divisions.
If your high potential leaders do not feel valued, then their career progression may become blocked leading to the organization failing to benefit from the HiPo development program.
Your executive leaders may prefer to keep all HiPos reporting to a division lead. If you run into this, have HiPos report into Talent Development for development and monitoring engagement. HiPos remain personally responsible for high-performance and seeking/accepting leadership development opportunities. HiPos who fail to continue high-performance and appear to become entitled should experience performance management. HiPos describe the folly of being un willing to make the tough decision and remove HiPos from your HiPo program when they under perform or become a liability due to disruptive, entitled behaviors.
Retaining Your Leaders Through Rewards Systems
High potential leaders have shared that they prefer more immediate rewards like challenging assignments and opportunities to prove themselves over stock options and retirement benefits. Many HiPos juggle younger families, mortgages, and even education debt. To communicate to these rising leaders that they are a company asset, you can arrange for benefits programs with flexible options selected by the employees to become a destination employer for HiPos. Imagine the power of achieving a strategic business outcome and having your MBA debt wiped away.
6. Demonstrate Leadership Integrity Through Consistency
Leadership integrity and values are demonstrated in any communications and all talent management processes. HiPos notice incongruent signals. If your values say one thing and different behavior gets rewarded, then your HiPos note the inconsistency and begin to question organizational statements.
7. Prevent Disconnects With Engaged & Committed Senior Leadership
Emerging high potential leaders value communication that remains consistent, simple, dynamic, and reflects engagement from committed senior leadership. When developing leaders, avoid executives with poor leadership hygiene as they create massive disconnects within their teams. Focus on the executives who get the value of having a strong bench.
8. Pair Your Leadership Development Programs with HiPo Managers
Good line management and opportunity for advancement is essential for HiPos. Otherwise, they look externally for opportunities. Learn2 discovered that pairing Business Leader Programs with HiPo Managers can transform retention and engagement. Including the HiPo in with the direct reporting manager of a HIPO program is integral to program success and his/her bonus goals include developing leader capacity. Support is provided for HiPos taking on risk and challenging assignments.
You Want Your HiPo Programs To Build Organizational & Individual Capacity
Different levels of leadership come with different levels of complexity, challenge, and ambiguity. High-potential leaders that are rushed up the promotion ladder may be derailed as senior leaders if they miss out on a seminal developmental experience. Critical experience, domain knowledge and leadership capabilities are ideally created in a lattice approach. A lattice approach creates a well-rounded business executive with the context and understanding to really lead into the future. At the very least, leaders want to experience trust, respect, and honesty and have them combine to “create the conditions for exceptional performance” (The Work Foundation, 2010). High-potential leaders expect good management and great leadership role models.
Categorize Your HiPo Programs
When developing a high potential employee (hipo) program, consider streaming your HiPos programs into a) early-career HiPos, b) mid-career HiPos, and c) senior leadership HiPos. When creating your development program, get clear on the experience and investment required, avoiding the temptation to make your HiPo program about learning and development rather than leading and achieving business results. Select assignments that develop skills and traits while expanding capacity by solving complexity, challenge and ambiguity. The CTOs warned that HiPos who are fast-tracked, rushed or transitioned-poorly into overly-challenging opportunities may derail.
Invest in Leadership Development with Learn2
The best HiPo development plans involve a well though-out, forward-thinking plan. By creating a streamlined high potential employee (HiPo) program, you can ensure you have the right leaders in place for the future of the organization.
