High Potentials: Teach Them Well and Let Them Lead the Way
While on a casual catch-up phone conversation with my mother, the phrase ‘developing your talents’ came up. No this was not in the context of the usual mother-son encouragement, but rather the topic of her monthly Sunday School lesson for 11 year old girls. The first part of the lesson involved drawing an octopus, each of its eight arms representing a talent or strength, effectively arming itself with a bevy of skills to be prepared for the inevitable challenges that life has in store.
Central to this idea, especially at a young age, is the concept that strengths are the intersection of passion and ability. I love basketball. But I’m 5’11” and can’t dribble. Basketball is not one of my strengths.
From my experience in moderating HCI webcasts, I immediately brought up some of the lessons from Keep an Eye on Your Talent: Managing Working Styles to Grow Success, a webcast featuring Soni Basi, Executive Director, Global Talent Development at The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. ELC is a strengths based organization that incorporates the organization’s mission to “Bring out the best in everything we touch” into its talent management philosophy which states, “You’re good at something… Let me amplify it.”
What makes this approach successful from an organizational standpoint is easy to understand; clearly putting employees in positions to succeed based on existing skills and competencies is an organizational win. But the underlying effect is on ELC’s ability to develop and retain high-potential employees. Through the identification of employee strengths it allows employees the transparency they desire to determine how to leverage their individual talents in order to accomplish their career goals within their current position.
At this time everyone is aware of the shifting demographics in the workforce, but it's worth restating. According to author and Gen Y expert, Dan Schawbel, 75% of the workforce will be made up of Millennials by the year 2025. So taking a long view, organizations have ten years to get the young people of today ready for leadership positions of tomorrow. This long view is convenient if you’re into procrastination. In reality many of the leadership positions I’m talking about need to be filled in the very near future.
According to recent HCI research, it takes an average of 20 months to develop a mid-level manager. Did I mention that the average tenure of Millennials in one job is 2 years? I was never a great math student, but it seems to me that organizations have about 4 months to determine which of their new hires are most prepared for succession plans or else they run the risk of losing those high potentials to perceived greener pastures.
Therefore it's no secret that the concept of accelerated leadership development is becoming increasingly critical for HCM leaders. In an upcoming HCI webcast sponsored by Oracle Human Capital Management, Prepare High Potentials for Fast Approaching Leadership Positions, Miguel Joey Aviles, Chief Learning Officer of Young Government Leaders, will talk through some important steps that organizations can take to accelerate the development of its high potential employees.
So much individual learning and growth occurs during the onboarding process, and it’s through this crucible of new experiences that employees can effectively self-identify as high potentials. The onus is on talent management to recognize this and act accordingly to arm themselves, just like the octopus from my mom's church lesson, with the talent to succeed in the challenges ahead.