Business Advice: Identifying Top Talent

For organizations interested in strategically planning for future leadership, better identification and development of true high potential talent is critical.  High potentials are the top 3-5% of your talent pool and stand out amongst their peers.  They distinguish themselves as top performers while manifesting attitudes and behaviors that align with organizational goals, values, and culture.  Their capacity to grow and quest for challenge is palpable and marked by four “X factors” that Ready and colleagues outline in their recent Harvard Business Review article (see link at end):

1. Drive to excel: Driven by ambition and success, high potentials are ready and willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to achieve exceptional results. They’re always eager to roll up their sleeves and be hands-on whenever necessary.  Such initiative and consistent self- motivation to take action and create desired business results can be summed up as a “can-do attitude,” which is hopefully contagious.

2. Catalytic learning capability: High potentials are relentless learners with a results orientation.  They actually attempt to apply their learnings to issues they face on the job every day.  They seek ongoing development both professionally and personally.

3. Enterprising spirit: High potentials are often organizational change agents who encourage new ideas and out-of –the box thinking.  They thrive on challenge and will typically push themselves out of their own comfort zones.  Often they have the people skills of exemplary entrepreneurs like being a connector/relationship builder, trusted collaborator, and energizer with an enthusiastic, positive attitude.

4. Dynamic sensors: High potentials are agile thinkers who get a pulse on rapidly changing situations and are nimble enough to make just in time situational adjustments.  They tend to have the foresight to read into future trends and a good eye for opportunities. They mesh well with the culture and chemistry of the organization, the leadership team and those around them. 

There are three elements that aid in gaining membership to this exclusive group of high potentials: (1) Deliver strong results—credibly, (2) Master new types of expertise, and (3) Recognize that behavior counts.

Interested in learning more?  To access the complete article: http://ow.ly/8OHyE