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A High-Potential Employees Program Enables Your Company to Maximize Talent in Fort Worth, TX

How to Select and Train Employees for High Potentials Leadership Development in the Fort Worth area

Business success trickles down from the top. Enthusiasm starts at the upper echelons of a company, and it spreads through the ranks, empowering department managers, salespeople, customer service reps and other vital staff members. Because of this, it is vital to ensure that your executive roster remains filled with competent talent over time. When people retire and vacancies present themselves, many companies opt to fill them by placing ads on external sites, hoping for an influx of gifted applicants. Unfortunately, studies have shown that businesses stand a better chance of long-term success by training and developing potential leaders from existing high-potential employees.

Who are High-Potential Employees?

High-potential employees are a relatively rare breed. They’re people who rise successively through multiple management levels, inspire the individuals in their departments and achieve consistently good results. When business owners identify high-potential employees — also known as HiPos — early on, they can develop their most promising leaders via HiPo programs. While all employees deserve effective training programs, high-quality High potential development programs are especially vital to success because they strengthen company structure and prepare businesses for the future.

What Do High-Potential Development Programs Do?

Essentially, well-conceived HiPo development programs take individuals with great leadership potential and develop those management skills to the max. Department heads and other leaders identify high-potential talent, typically through proven employee potential assessment tools and then invite the HiPos to enter a leadership development program in which they are granted access to interdisciplinary learning opportunities, given real-world challenges to solve and are coached and mentored on a one-to-one basis. Your high-potential candidates then use their newly honed skills to excel in their existing roles and advance smoothly through the ranks.

One of the best peripheral payoffs of a great high potential employee development program is its effect on other employees, who reap many benefits when their managers go through advanced training and development initiatives.  High otential development programs frequently cause positive paradigm shifts when they’re properly implemented, making both individuals and the companies they work for more successful.

Identifying High-Potential Employees

In a recent study by the Harvard Business Review, 98 percent of companies surveyed said that they deliberately identified high-potential employees. However, half of respondents said that they spent less than 10 percent of their time actually developing those potential future leaders. If the HBR study is a reliable indicator of the wider marketplace, then we can conclude that a sizable proportion of all companies don’t adequately leverage their existing talent bases. The first step on the road to high-potential employee development is HiPo identification. Though different companies have different criteria they use to ID talent, most businesses agree that HiPo personnel share the following characteristics:

• They outpace and outperform their peers in a variety of work-based situations
• They achieve superior results and simultaneously exemplify company values
• They are upwardly mobile and display healthy ambition

According to the same Harvard Business Review survey, most businesses place the top 3 to 5 percent of their most gifted employees in the high potential category.

Why Are HiPo Development Programs Vital?

Naturally talented people are tremendously useful and add value to any corporation. But talent isn’t enough to guarantee either personal or overall success. Talent is a tool: when used correctly, it can broker deals, cut through red tape and break quarterly sales records. When neglected, however, talent alone doesn’t breed accomplishment.

High Potential employee development programs help kindle talent and drive success in three distinct ways, particularly if HiPo employees are identified early in their careers:

1. High potential leadership development programs focus on methods for success as well as results. In the regular business world, bonuses and accolades frequently depend upon results alone, but in the high-potential world, methods matter too. High-potential managers don’t use negative reinforcement or bullying to make staff members work harder, for example — even if those tactics break sales records.

2. Effective high potentials leadership programs help guide early-stage high-potentials as they make developmental decisions. The earlier high-potential employees go into a HiPo development program, the more quickly they’ll develop and the further they’ll go. When companies develop high performing individuals expediently, they set themselves up for ongoing success.

3. High potential employee development programs help prevent burnout. When left to their own devices, driven individuals often push themselves to the brink of total exhaustion. High-potential development programs help HiPo employees pace themselves, so they stay healthier in the long term and remain loyal to the company.

Why Should You Invest in High Potential Employee Development Programs?

Financially, it just makes sense. Hi potential employees tend to bring more value to companies than non-HiPo staff, and development and training programs only make that more likely. First, because formal High potentials leadership programs are an acknowledgement for the high-potential employee that they have something extra to offer and that you are willing to invest in that. Second, because high potential development programs teach HiPos how to hone their skills and talents to better address business, team and even personal goals. Formalized high-potential development programs can also make your organization more attractive to top candidates. Individuals who have previously been identified as HiPo elsewhere or who self-identify as HiPo (even if they don’t know the term for it) are drawn to companies that invest in leadership training, offer coaching and mentorship opportunities and help employees prepare for brighter futures. But How Do You Identify HiPo Employees?

Yes, performance matters. Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions’ benchmarking process helps you evaluate performance metrics and other key factors to identify HiPo employees, but we also encourage you to get to know your staff and to work with them in a variety of environments. Via customized team and leadership development programs and working side-by-side with high achievers, you can better identify individuals who demonstrate HiPo traits. Some things that are common to high-potential individuals include:

• Excellent communication skills. Even without training, HiPos tend to be able to express themselves powerfully and clearly, and they often understand the nuances required of leaders.
• Already in leadership roles or being considered for them. Most HiPos don’t wait for formal recognition to excel, and they often work their way into leadership roles or stand out for consideration. At the same time, executives should realize that numerous factors can hold an unidentified HiPo back, so it’s important consider talent at all levels of an organization.
• Knowledge, interest or insight outside of their position. HiPos are rarely happy doing the same job for years at a time, and they’re always looking for a new risk, challenge or opportunity. That means they ask questions about departments and processes outside of their immediate work environment, and they often make work decisions based on big-picture thinking rather than solely on personal, team or short-term goals.

The same talents that make Hi potential employees so likely to succeed in the long term can actually lead to poorer short-term performance, especially if they aren’t identified and property developed. Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions provides custom HiPo development programs that enable you to engage and develop talented staff as well as establish a plan for retaining high potential employees.

When to Hone High-Potential Employees

Most businesses identify high-potential employees at two key points: early in their careers and when individuals are promoted into senior management positions. Opportunities for growth abound at both junctures, though a high potential development program and corresponding training methods used may vary.

• Early-stage HiPo development courses leverage technology, internal mentoring, cross-functional exposure initiatives and existing resources to hone skill in a cost-efficient way. The earlier high-potential individuals begin training, the further they may go.
• Succession planning initiatives that include middle-management and later stage high potentials can embrace high potential development programs best practices by leveraging the experience and knowledge of more senior employees.  Often this type of program requires more customization and thus a little more investment, but can reliably help talented managers and even executives excel in senior management positions. An effective high-potential employee program does not exclude late-blooming high potentials. In fact, the more experienced hipos add significant value and depth to an executive potential program. We encourage our clients to consider a customized, top-down development approach to capture the wealth of experience gained in a lifetime on the job.

In either case, effective HiPo development programs help drive company growth and give businesses unique competitive advantages.

High Potential Leadership Development FAQs

Q: Why are high potential employee development programs so important?

A: Whenever possible, all employees at a business should be given access to high-quality training programs. Having said that, high-potential employees require special attention because they function as key players in your company and hold the power to influence others. Furthermore, developing high potential employees has been shown to reduce turnover, improve innovation, and positively impact the bottom line.

Q: What makes a HiPo development program great?

A: Superior high-potential programs are tailor made for your particular company and built to help your particular batch of HiPo employees succeed. An effective high potential program should consider your company’s mission, values, leadership competencies, and strategic trajectory.  

Additionally, a qualified high potential program partner will customize the program to meet the needs of any level of employee while still challenging your most experienced HiPos.  

Your high potential employee development program should be built using best practices and include various components such as high potential employee assessment tools, feedback and development planning, one-on-one coaching and/or peer to peer coaching, leadership competency instruction, real-business simulations, shark tank style capstone projects to build business acumen, internal mentoring, and cross-organizational introductions, etc.  

There’s no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ HiPo program.  Instead, we encourage you to give TurnKey a call at 281-469-4244 to explore the right components for your employee development needs, budget, culture, and strategic priorities.

Q: How do High Potential Leadership Programs benefit my business?

After a successful high-potential employee development program concludes, participants return to their roles with renewed vigor, tackle challenges with fresh enthusiasm and advance to new management positions with greater confidence.   The comradery built within the program, amongst their peers, continues to thrive and supports greater networking and interpersonal effectiveness.

Providing your high-potential employees with a career plan and development opportunities fosters a happier culture. And, according to a recent Columbia University study happy company cultures have a turnover rate of 13.9 percent on average; compared to their counterparts with lower morale, where turnover is more likely to be in the 48.4 percent range.

Furthermore, according to the Department of Economics and the University of Warwick, happy employees are 12 percent more productive than average employees.  The research also showed that unhappy employees cost American businesses more than $300 billion annually.

The case is strong to take your high potential employee development goals seriously.

Gifted individuals frequently excel without encouragement, but they do even better when placed in a custom-built high potential development program. HiPo programs are carefully constructed to bring out the best in your most promising people, so your investment pays off in the long run. Well-developed leaders tend to inspire their peers as well as the staff members who report to them directly, and inspired employees tend to deliver consistently great results. In a nutshell, the right executive development program applied to the right people can make your company a leader in its field.

 

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