How to Select and Develop

High Potential Leaders

The science behind selecting and accelerating
your next generation talent

Business & Talent. Aligned.

Table of Contents
Who are the High Potentials? ............................................................................1

The Science of Selecting HIPOs..........................................................................2

Common Mistakes Made in Managing the

HIPO Talent Pool.................................................................................................3

HIPO Selection and Development Process..........................................................3

The 4E Approach for Accelerated Development

and Sustained Behavior Change..........................................................................4

Right Management Leader Development Solutions..............................................5

Teachable Fit An Innovative Approach to

Unleashing Potential............................................................................................6

About the Author.................................................................................................7

Who are the High Potentials?
High potential leaders, or HIPOs as they are sometimes called, are individual contributors or
managers who could perform successfully in leadership roles that are one to two levels above their
current roles, ideally over the next two to five years. Performance appraisal analysis suggests that
30% of current high performing managers are also high potentials leaders, but the actual figure is
closer to 20% or less. Making the right HIPO selection decisions at the beginning of the process
is critical to long term success in managing a strong leadership talent pipeline.

The diagram below shows a typical view of the leadership pipeline with the HIPO track along the left
hand side of the diagram. This diagram suggests there are three pools of potential leadership talent
in a given organization. High potential candidates can be front line managers, middle managers and
functional leaders. Some companies with specialties like engineering and research also maintain a
HIPO Specialist Track along side the HIPO career track for general managers.

Business
Leaders

Functional
Leaders
ls
tia
ten

Middle
Po

Managers
h
Hig

First Line
Managers

Figure 1: The Leadership Pipeline

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 The Science of Selecting HIPOs
To ensure a reliable process of selecting HIPO talent we recommend that three factors should be
measured for each candidate. By ensuring that the candidate has career drive, including mobility,
we know this person has the ambition and flexibility to invest in their growth and development for
a future leadership role with the company. Understanding a persons career aspirations allows the
company to better chart a career path for each HIPO candidate. We now live in a one-size-fits-one
world, so using the same career path options for younger, talented professionals no longer works.
It is also important that the candidate demonstrates consistent high performance in their current role.
We prefer to see consistent job performance over a minimum two year period and across two direct
managers. Finally, leadership agility has emerged to be the strongest predictor for how well leader
candidates will do working at a level above their current role. The more flexible and adaptive leaders
are, the more likely they are to succeed. While we believe that learning agility is a key success factor
for leadership, we think agility must also be applied to successfully lead strategy, execution and
interpersonal relations. The rationale for agility is that the research is clear that high agility organiza-
tions far outperform industry peers on all measures including long term financial performanace.
Agile organizations require agile leaders.

Proactively seek new Strategic Agility

learning opportunities Interpersonal Agility
Open to new experiences Operational Agility
Possess good self regard
Confident in their abilities,
1. Career Drive 2. Agility
choices and direction
& Aspiration

3. Organizational
Confidence &
Work Performance

Network with the right people

Demonstrate their abilities in a positive way
Have a presence in the organization

Figure 2: HIPO Candidate Selection Factors

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Common Mistakes Made in Managing the HIPO
Talent Pool
To avoid selecting candidates that will not succeed in future roles it is important to avoid the following
traps. Most managers will nominate high performers who are not actually high potentials based on
past performance only, but not validate the selection with some form of observational or psychometric
assessment. Managers assume that high performers are automatically high potentials. The research
is clear that this is not the case, when in fact only 20% or less of high performing employees are
also high potential. A manager may be a high performer at their current level, but struggle at a higher
level business leadership role due to increased demands and capabilities required to succeed in
those roles. Secondly, after implementing a HIPO program in the company there is no organizational
system or processes to develop, rotate or deploy candidates to help them gain the right experience
to prepare them for their next role. We know that HIPO leaders develop best through job based
exposure and stretch experiences, so the organization must have a process to support these
activities. For these high potential leaders who are not managed under a structured development
process, many or most lose faith in the company providing for their career and they may leave
the company to pursue their careers with another firm. We know that many or most stay with
their current companies when they can see their future aligned with the companys future.

HIPO Selection and Development Process

Selecting high potential leaders requires a two step process of manager nomination followed by
assessment to ensure accurate assignment of candidates into the high potential talent pool.

Below is a recommended process for selection, development and deployment of high potential talent.

Validate the Leadership Success Profile

or Competency Model

Nominate and Select HIPO Canidates

(Managers Nominate/Talent Review/Basic Assessment)

Run Development Center and Individual

Development Plan

Deploy to New Role and

Monitor Performance

Figure 3: HIPO Selection, Development and Deployment Process

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 The 4E Approach for Accelerated Development
and Sustained Behavior Change
Right Managements 4E development approach is adapted from the Corporate Leadership Councils
research on best practices for accelerating leader development and future role readiness. The ideal
mix of development should be comprised of 25% education, 25% exposure and 50% experience,
along with a measure of effectiveness. Exposure and experience are best provided, in our experi-
ence, through action learning approaches.

Research has shown us that:

About 50% of development comes through on-the-job experience, including:

EXPERIENCE

On-the-job tasks
Stretch projects/opportunities
Job rotations and transfers
50%

About 25% of development comes through relationships with others, including:

EXPOSURE

Feedback
Role models
Visibility opportunities
25%
Mentoring, coaching & sponsoring others

About 25% of development comes through education, including:

EDUCATION

Instructor led courses

E-Learning programs
Selected readings/self study
25%

Measure and report on individual and organizational impact:

EFFECTIVE

Pre-development measure to obtain baseline for later evaluations

Training effectiveness and relevance to job objectives
Program Post-development measures on job related behaviors to evaluate job impact
Impact Post-development measures to report on organizational impact

Figure 4: 4E Development Approach

Our recommendation is that HIPO programs should leverage interdisciplinary development approaches
into an integrated leadership development experience. This includes development that grows business
acumen together with core leadership skills. The diagram at the top of the following page illustrates
elements that can be combined into an effective development program. Our research indicates that
Action Learning is one the most powerful ways to close the leadership skill gap and get the HIPO
leaders ready for their next role. There is ongoing debate on the exact percentages for education,
exposure and experience activity, but our view is that the majority of HIPO development should focus
on exposure and experience activities.

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 Education Experience and Exposure

Leader Assessment Business

and Feedback Simulation

Leader Capability
Domains
Lead Yourself Business Coaching/
Lead People Leader Mentoring
Lead Strategy
Lead Execution

Action Learning Job Rotation/

Project Stretch Assignment

Figure 5: Approaches to 4E HIPO Development

The diagram above illustrates the recommended education focus. The training curriculum should
be organized by the four leadership capability domains: Leading Yourself, Leading People, Leading
Strategy and Leading Execution. We also recommend group based business simulations as the
fastest way to grow business acumen and P&L management skills.

Right Management Leader Development Solutions

As a world leader in talent and career management solutions, Right Management has a range
of customizable programs for leadership development and talent assessment. We offer targeted
programs for each level of the leadership pipeline, including HIPO action learning programs.

Business
Executive Development Leaders Leading for Performance
Center EMCO Program (LFP)

Functional
Leaders
ls

HIPO Action Leading for Results

Po High
tia

Learning Program Middle Program (LFR)

ten

Managers

Leadership Development
First Line Skills Suite Modules
Managers

Figure 6: Right Management Leadership Solutions

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 Teachable Fit An Innovative Approach to
Unleashing Potential
Research into the psychology of leadership development has shown that some elements of leadership
are easier to develop than others. Right Management has developed a tool to help clients understand
these dynamics and we call this the Teachable Fit Framework.

Important? Teachable?
Capabilities
1 (low) - 5 (high) 1 (low) - 5 (high)

Knowledge Academic/Professional Discipline

Business or academic
disciplines Industry/Function/Process

Skills Technical
Demonstrated aptitudes
and practices, both Problem Solving
hard and soft
Communication

Planning/Organization

Collaboration/Teamwork

Values & Mindset Self-Management/Autonomy

Attitudes that people
bring to jobs and jobs Initiative
need in people
Motivation to Learn

Personality & Intelligence Service Orientation

Basic character and
mental traits Analytical

Capacity to Learn

Figure 7: Teachable Fit Framework

Ideally, when considering HIPO candidates for business leadership roles, we need to understand the
key capabilities required for the role, along with the importance and teachability of each capability.
Knowledge and skills required for a new role can be development in a reasonable timeframe with
a personal commitment to grow from the leader, along with a high quality development process
provided by the company. But a leaders values, mindset, intelligience and personality elements
are very difficult to change in a reasonable timeframe. Therefore we recommend you grow the
knowledge and skillset required for the new role, while also helping that leader manage and align
values, mindset and personality to fit the role requirements. We believe its very important for the
company and the HIPO candidate to understand what is coachable and what is not coachable
(fit) for the future roles they are considering.

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Implementation Guidelines
It is important to remember that the format of a program for high potential talent selection
and development should be organization specific. Each company has unique business
priorities, operating culture and key leadership capabilities. While leveraging the best practices
outlined in this document, be sure to configure your companys high potential selection and
development process so it is fit for purpose. Our view is not to make your high potential process
overly complicated. Focus on 3-4 core leadership capabilities required to take the organization
to the next stage of growth and focus on action learning, or job based learning, as the primary
development approach.

Finally, ensure that the high potential candidates have a way to provide input early on regarding
their personal career aspiration and goals. In this way you get strong engagement from your high
potential leaders and they more clearly see their professional future in the future of your company.

About the Author

Ric serves as the head of Right Managements Global Center
of Excellence for Talent Management and the Consulting
Practice Leader for Asia Pacific. He has extensive international
consulting experience working with many Global 500 company
clients and executives.

Dr. Ric Roi

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