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A High-Potential Employees Program Cultivates Future Stars in El Monte, CA

How to Select and Train Employees for High Potentials Leadership Development in the El Monte area

Without the right people, an organization can’t succeed, and in today’s complex, competitive market, it’s not enough to identify staff with the right skill sets. Successful companies look toward the future and ask questions like “Who is going to lead innovation tomorrow?” One of the answers to those questions is high-potential employees, or HiPos. The designation of HiPo doesn’t necessarily pertain to how well a person can perform a specific type of task — there’s a difference between high-potential and specifically gifted. Instead, HiPos are up-and-comers with a high probability of success — which means a high likelihood of contributing to the success of your organization. By identifying and developing HiPos, companies position themselves for a brighter future.

What Are High-Potential Employees and Why Should You Develop Them?

The first step in creating a successful high-potential employee program is understanding what high-potential employees are and why it is so important to develop them.

In their Harvard Business Review article, “Are You a High Potential”, Douglas A. Ready, Jay A. Conger and Linda A. Hill describe HiPos as possessing the following characteristics:

• A drive to excel: these employees are not simply high achievers. They are willing to do whatever it takes and make sacrifices to be the best.
• A catalytic learning ability: high potential employees don't just soak up knowledge like a sponge; they know how to convert knowledge into productive actions that get results.
• An enterprising spirit: high-potential employees are trailblazers. Never satisfied with the status quo, they are always seeking new challenges and figuring out better ways to do things.
• Dynamic sensors: the most promising leaders are always on alert for the next big thing. This can make them difficult to manage. If they can't sense a long-term career payoff where they are, they often get wandering eyes.

This combination of traits makes HiPos ideal candidates to guide your company into the future. But it also means they need the right guidance and training to keep their vision and goals reconciled with those of your business. Left to their own devices, they can easily get derailed and go rogue. The master trainers at Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions understand the psychology of HiPos. We can help you build an effective high potential leadership program that strategically grooms them to steer your company to long-term success.

The need for executive potential programs and leadership development programs is apparent across industries.

According to an international survey by the Corporate Leadership Council, approximately 75 percent of companies are concerned about staffing leadership positions in the future, with almost two-thirds of all companies identifying themselves as ineffective at identifying potential leaders. Does the use of high potential employee development programs make a difference? A Hewitt Associates study of large companies in the United States shows that the answer is yes. When companies deliberately identify and train HiPos, their total shareholder return (TSR) goes up, sometimes dramatically. TSR continues to increase when companies track the progress of their high-potential employees, performing regularly in the 75th percentile. Not surprisingly, HiPo employees who've been properly identified and trained tend to be promoted more quickly than other employees. Whether this is a result of excellent selection at the identification stage or on-target training and development programs is moot. Whether nature or nurture lies behind their success, the value of HiPo development programs is apparent.

Our high potential employee assessment and HiPo development programs are nothing like the run-of-the-mill leadership programs you've likely sent your employees to before. We do not host one-day or one-week events where your company leaders mingle with executives from other firms and listen to so-called "trainers" rehash the same hackneyed leadership clichés that, by now, are probably seared into your brain.

Instead, we evaluate your company and its specific needs; then, we build a program from the ground up to meet them. We customize every program using high potential employee development best practices, including:

• Needs analysis using our high-potential employee assessment tools
• Culture analysis
• Employee level and experience
• Creating a "coach approach"
• Long-term sustainability
• Human resources integration and even ‘train the trainer’ options

Your hi potential employees get the opportunity to work with master trainers who specialize in developing high-potential employees. They have helped many businesses get the most out of their workforce and create seamless transitions between generations of leaders. Our master trainers HiPo program experts put their knowledge, experience and vast resources to work for your business.

What Makes a High-Potential Employee Tick?

To create effective high potential development programs, trainers must understand the hardwiring behind HiPo individuals. At first meeting, HiPo employees are often mistaken for more conventional high achievers, but they are actually quite different from their talented peers. HiPo employees are certainly gifted, but they possess more than just raw talent—and their nuances are sometimes hard to see. Identifying your high potential employees can be a daunting task. Employee potential assessment tools like the nine-block grid are helpful, but are subjective and far from perfect. There are important characteristics that high-potentials possess and more sophisticated high-potential assessment processes capture. A few of HiPo characteristics include:

• Element One: A Desire to Learn
  Lots of people love to learn, but high-potential individuals have an insatiable learning capacity. More than that, HiPos enthusiastically internalize information, process it and then use their newfound knowledge to solve unusual challenges—and all of that in a surprisingly short time span. A rare confluence of cognitive ability and common sense consistently gives HiPos an edge over their peers, making them invaluable employees.
• Element Two: Sensitive Instincts
  HiPos might call it a hunch, a certain je nes sais quoi or just a particular feeling, but what’s really going on is superb instinct. Gut feelings lead high-potential individuals toward lucrative bargains, interesting career opportunities and, occasionally, risky prospects. That’s where the flipside of HiPo intuition comes in: a well-developed dynamic sensory drive, which can help them avoid disaster. These highly sensitive instincts make high-potential personnel vital components in deal-making teams.
• Element Three: A Drive to Succeed
  When is good not good enough? When you’re a HiPo. To feel content at the end of any project, high-potential individuals need to feel that they’ve excelled. HiPos frequently stay late, make real sacrifices for the team and push themselves to the max because they want to succeed at almost any cost. This drive can be a blessing if it leads to a research breakthrough or a sales record, or a curse if it leads to exhaustion and illness.
• Element Four: A Trailblazing Personality
  Most people stay well within their comfort zones unless they’re pushed out by force. High-potential people, on the other hand, happily trail-blaze and let their enterprising spirits guide them as they go along. They find excitement and opportunity where other people see only risk. Driven by the desire to advance, HiPos love to craft new solutions to old problems and see advantages in walking where other people fear to tread.

You can use these defining features to select suitable candidates for your own high-potential employee development program as you work to build your company’s future executive roster.

Consider the Top 10 %
Many organizations identify their high-potential employees by simply asking the supervisors for their top 10%. Then within an HR facilitated nomination committee determine which of the 10% would be ideal candidates for employee development . A high-potential leadership development best practice approach includes rolling out a pilot program for the first year, typically including training, assessment and feedback, and either one-on-one coaching or peer-to-peer coaching. Cultivating Prosperity with a Custom-Designed High Potential Development Scheme
Many businesses go for ready-made training programs in the belief that they offer good value for money. Conversely, truly savvy company owners opt for custom-designed HiPo programs, which help high-potential employees develop fully and according to strategic priorities. The master trainers and employee development experts at Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions work with both small and large groups of high-potential employees, training and teaching them how to expand upon their existing skillsets, how to work successfully in teams and how to reach the top of the business ladder.

Traditional day or week-long high potential employee development programs might seem like an easy way to develop your high-potential employees — after all, that's what other companies are doing, right? — but think about how many such programs you've attended in your career. Then ask yourself, "Am I really a better leader because I attended a few formulaic leadership conferences?"

If you want real results, you need a customized HiPo employee development program custom-built just for your company and with high potential development programs best practices. That's what our master trainers and certified coaches at Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions have to offer. Typically, we work with both large and small groups of high potential employees to create a comprehensive training and HiPo development program crafted around your goals that prime your business for success.

What kind of background do your master trainers have?

Many of our master trainers have 10+ years corporate experience, thousands of hours of executive coaching, and have served as corporate executives themselves or had Fortune 500 companies as clients. In addition, many of them hold advanced degrees such as MBAs and Ph.Ds.

What kinds of results can my company expect?

The goal of our high potential employee assessment and development training programs is to first establish the results you hope to achieve and then design our program to offer the best chance of seeing those results. Perhaps your organization seeks to reduce turnover, or improve innovation, or perhaps your executives are within retiring age and you want to ensure a ready-now bench of competent leaders.  We can design a high potential employee development program to address these needs and more. In fact, many of our clients have reported increased productivity, better organizational strength, cost reductions, higher bottom-line productivity and many other positive results.

How much does a high-potential employee development program cost?

Because we custom design each program based on the client's individual needs, it is impossible to quote an exact cost up front. What we can tell you is this: We offer a variety of participation levels that let you choose the intensity and duration of the high potential development program based on your budget and the time your organization has available to invest.

Studies have shown that companies who choose to invest in their people — particularly their HiPo employees — do better, both in the short term and in the long term. High-potential individuals who receive training are much more likely to stick with their employers and tend to feel more inspired when new challenges arise. In turn, they inspire their peers and the staff members they’re entrusted with. In conclusion, when you choose a tailor-made HiPo development program and apply it to the right individuals, your initial investment rapidly pays for itself.

 

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