Who’s Responsible for Feeding Leadership Development?

“This helps to ensure an environment that encourages transparency, inclusion and ultimately consensus on those employees identified as high potential and given opportunities unique to the status,” Hieger said.

To identify candidates, Hieger said that beyond looking for superior performance and contribution, companies should look for employees who are purpose and goal driven and passionate, and who need to feel challenged and that they’ve accomplished something. Candidates most likely to succeed are forward leaning, have a vision for themselves and the organization, and express pride in their contributions and others’ success.

“When people’s jobs align with their motivators, their job satisfaction increases dramatically,” said Shawn Kent Hayashi, author of Conversations for Creating Star Performers. “The result is invigorated job performance that leads to professional development.”

According to Hayashi, facilitating high potentials’ development is necessary to move an organization forward. Toward that end, coaching, learning courses and development assignments should tie into an organization’s competency model, which is set in alignment with an organization’s strategic goals.

Hayashi said, “When we understand the strategy plan for where the organization intends to go, we can step back and ask ourselves, ‘What are the skills and competencies that are going to enable us to get there? Who can we prepare to have those skills?’”

Hieger believes it is senior executives’ ability to answer that question that has made them the top contenders in spotting high potentials for development programs.

“When we’re selecting high potentials or identifying leaders we expect to be groomed for the future, it’s incumbent upon the people who currently hold leadership positions to have a vision of where they believe the business is going and what it’s going to require in the next three [to] five years,” he said.