Identifying, developing high potential employees

I'm Melissa Mancini with Canadian HR reporter TV I recently sat down with Marilyn Buckner to talk about succession management planning what do high potentials look like we know that they achieve a lot they drive for results they take a lot of initiative but that looks like what a high performer looks like too so what's different about a high potential is that they have a lot of ability to think strategically they have a lot of adaptability what we call learning agility and they can think outside the box and the reason that helps them is then they

can go into other positions a lot easier because they have that ability to learn quickly so they look just like high performers but they have this added extra piece that helps them move up several levels how do you identify them I prefer to use a test or an assessment because sometimes we think of people that we really like and we put them into a high potential category and they really aren't just because we like them and they're great people and they work hard so there are some assessments that I use and those assessments can validate

that what development strategies work well the coaching is the one though that everyone seems to love the best the high potentials that I've coached they always rated the highest they love having that attention someone focused exactly on them and relatively speaking compared to a lot of leadership and other kinds of training it's for the cost and for what people really like or having a mentor that's really the best in that respect now people love simulations that's another one and then development centers work well because they involve a lot of feedback they're not just sitting in

a class that may be a fabulous class or university class but they get that feedback that's what they really like anything with feedback