Dilemmas in assessing for potential

All through my career in HR and Consulting, there has been this debate around how best to look for potential in managers and leaders. Often the debate is about three things, among others:

• Can you really gauge someone's potential, unless the individual is put in a context of a role? Or "tested with reality" in other words.

The easy answer is to test a person in a new role and then say yes to the potential of the individual. But then we are playing safe and really gauging performance rather that potential. Also, this approach does not often allow an opportunity to go back on backing the person if there is failure.

• Is past performance the best indicator of future potential? Or the only one?

In absence of other indicators, certainly the fall back option is this. And it works in many cases where either a) the expected role transition and learning trajectory is linear or b) the new role is building on the skills and expertise on the old role-e.g specialist roles. But where there is a step jump in role expectations, or a lot to unlearn from past roles and successes, this may not work. Especially now that role expectations and the context are changing all the time, in almost all industries.

• When an organization takes a call on an high potential employee, is it not a self fulfilling prophecy?

Resources and opportunities come this person's way more than for others. There is no way to compare whether others who have been left out would not have succeeded equally given the same resources and opportunities.

There is also much debate whether the leaders who assess potential are capable and equipped to do this exercise. They have operated in a different worlds to now, and the nature of work, job expectations and how work is done have all changed (or changing) all across.

More important, the leaders themselves have not been assessed and tracked for this particular aspect of their performance very often; i.e, how many people of high potential have they identified and maybe groomed, who have gone on to become successful or have failed. Increasingly though, organizations are starting to track this in different ways although more informally than formally.

For mid to senior level positions, across industry, here is my checklist for assessing hi-potential. Not an exhaustive list but it works in most contexts.

1. Is the individual working on things that are marginally challenging beyond his or her abilities out of choice?

2. Is he or she looking for inspiration beyond the manager? And not getting shadowed.

3. Are they able to navigate the organisations' social and political fabric without feeling unfairly treated?

4. Is he or she learning enough and continuously? What exactly?

5. Does the individual give and receive help from co-workers consistently?

6. Does he have a sense of purpose/ right direction in their career even though it may not fit with the organizational goals?

7. Does she create a workplace for herself and others which helps generate and discuss new ideas regularly?

8. Is the individual able to balance professional and personal commitments?

9. Does she get a kick out of opportunities to hit significant goals/ milestones and generate a sense of accomplishment ?

10. What does the person crib about --lack of opportunities or lack of resources?

11. Does he create a network beyond the immediate workplace actively?

12. Is he seen by others as really good at a few things?

Simple, easy to use and giving a very good sense of the individual as an outcome--these have been the tests for me when building this list.

Very often, potential is smelt and felt. Great leaders have this ability to pick and back other great leaders who display potential. Assessing potential is as much a science as an art.

The questions above can hopefully help build a way to think about identifying hi-potential employees and leaders. And help build more meaningful questions towards what may best allow the 'potential assessment art form' to flourish.

Bimal Rath is a Leadership and Talent development consultant and author. He helps individuals in exploring and discovering their potential and shifting gears. He works for Think Talent, consulting with companies in shaping their talent strategy for the new world of work. You could visit thinktalent.co to get a glimpse of his organisation's work.