How can you spot and groom future leaders through performance management?

1 Define leadership criteria

Before you can spot future leaders, you need to define what leadership means in your organization and what skills, behaviors, and competencies are required for different roles and levels. You can use a leadership framework or model that aligns with your vision, values, and goals, and that reflects the current and future needs of your business. You can also involve your existing leaders and stakeholders in creating or refining your leadership criteria, and communicate them clearly to your employees.

2 Assess leadership potential

Once you have defined your leadership criteria, you can use performance management to assess the leadership potential of your employees. You can use a variety of methods and sources to measure and evaluate their performance, such as goal setting, feedback, appraisals, 360-degree reviews, psychometric tests, and simulations. You can also observe their behavior, attitude, and impact on others, and look for signs of leadership potential, such as initiative, innovation, collaboration, learning agility, and resilience.

3 Provide feedback and coaching

Feedback and coaching are essential for developing future leaders, as they help them understand their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement, and guide them towards achieving their goals and fulfilling their potential. You can use performance management to provide regular, specific, and constructive feedback and coaching to your high-potential employees, and to create a culture of feedback and learning in your team. You can also encourage them to seek feedback and coaching from others, such as peers, mentors, or external experts.

4 Offer development opportunities

Another way to spot and groom future leaders through performance management is to offer them development opportunities that challenge them, stretch them, and expose them to new situations and perspectives. You can use performance management to identify the gaps and needs of your high-potential employees, and to design and implement development plans that address them. You can also offer them various opportunities to learn and grow, such as training, mentoring, job rotation, shadowing, projects, assignments, or leadership programs.

5 Recognize and reward leadership

Finally, you can use performance management to recognize and reward the leadership achievements and contributions of your high-potential employees, and to motivate them to continue their development journey. You can use performance management to set clear and meaningful criteria and metrics for recognition and reward, and to monitor and celebrate their progress and results. You can also use performance management to provide them with career guidance and support, and to help them advance to higher or different roles that suit their aspirations and capabilities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?