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No successful organization would be possible if it didn’t develop its high-potential employees. Many experts define a high-potential employee as “someone who has the potential, ability, and aspiration to hold successive leadership positions in an organization.”
Despite the relatively clear definition of a high-potential employee, there are still a few questions we need to answer. How do we identify who our high-potential employees are? How exactly are leaders made?
We have four tips to to help you develop your employees’ full potential as the company’s next leaders:
Identify your high-potential employees
Whether you have a start-up or a thriving corporation, high-potential employees can be identified by the soft skills that they possess: critical thinking skills, drive (grit), reliability, and self-awareness. Soft skills are a person’s character traits that shape their ability to work on their own and with others.
These qualities can be identified by direct supervisors or managers through mentoring, coaching, and providing effective feedback. The key here is to understand that no two employees in the same position are exactly the same. If you are a manager, you can help your direct employees to achieve their full potential by creating a customized plan for their personal growth and development.
Professional corporate trainers can also provide organizations with corporate training packages to strengthen their employees’ soft skills. This kind of training can develop your employees into effective leaders according to their organization’s respective key performance indicators.
Delegate responsibility to empower your employees
As a manager, encouraging increased ownership and accountability for your high-potential employees will benefit the development of their leadership abilities in the long-term. High-potentials possess the drive to succeed, grow, and take on additional responsibility. For example, you can assign the high-potential employee to a small project where he/she can lead a team and set project objectives.
Give them access to continuing education programs
Provide your high-potential employees with new opportunities for personal and professional growth to enhance their critical thinking skills. This can be done through online classes, custom corporate training, relevant seminars, and resource materials that will strengthen the employees’ current skill set.
Do regular goal-setting
You can challenge your high-potential employees by making sure that they have new, S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based) goals to strive for as part of their performance evaluation. Doing this will provide stretch opportunities and next-level exposure for your employees to venture outside their comfort zone. You can guide high-potential employees to grow into appropriate leadership roles by bringing them to relevant meetings, letting them shadow you in a key project, and having them attend events on your behalf.
Mentor the employees to become the next-generation leaders
Effective communication means having a two-way dialogue between the manager and the employee. This can be done through mentoring, an informal and unstructured way of coaching a subordinate by a more experienced individual (usually the manager). Mentoring provides the employee with a fresh perspective about his/her performance which can speed up growth.
An organization relies on its most valuable resources to succeed, the people. Believe in the abilities of your employees and they will surprise you. The Study by Enderun Colleges provides excellent corporate training services to develop your high-potential employees into the next-generation leaders.