6 Best Practices Of High-Potential Leadership Programs

6 Best Practices Of High-Potential Leadership Programs
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Summary: The best laid strategic plan to develop leaders can adrift if organizations fail to build a robust pipeline for future-ready leaders to navigate through business complexities.

High-Potential Leadership Programs Best Practices

Determining organizational goals and defining a long-term strategy to develop high-potential individuals is of utmost importance for a business. High potential (HIPO) can be explained as an individual who has the aptitude, business fidelity and enthusiasm to grow and thrive through business change. Success in leadership roles requires a combination of foundational and context-specific capabilities. Furthermore, identify critical competencies and leadership behaviors required to drive the organization’s strategy and direction.

Life Cycle Of High-Potential Employees
Discover the critical measures that impact the future success of high-potential talent.

To ensure a smooth transition into a leadership role, an organization has to strategize and assess the development plan that must take the business forward in the desired direction. Your leadership plan must include inciting thought-provoking leadership solutions to expand their skills curve and steer them through challenging times for shorter turnaround time. Listed below are some of the best practices for an organization to opt for a high-potential leadership program.

1. Project Management

Being a part of the organizational system, the individual must be aware of its role and responsibility. Keep track of the progress of an individual by providing a perfect mix of on-the-job challenges, experiences, and coaching. According to the 70:20:10 approach, on-the-job learning creates the best learning experience for a professional.

2. Focus On Potential

Diligent planning to ensure employee development must have quantifiable results. Projects of such magnitude should be assigned to high performing individuals that might push them under pressure but yield measurable outcomes. High potentials see such circumstances as challenging opportunities and push themselves to limits that give them chances to learn and grow during the process.

3. Holistic Approach

Involvement in business developing prospects is one astute method to analyse employee’s potential. Instead of probing current performance, it is advised to assimilate their capability to lead and develop talent and maintain momentum for future growth. Not only are high potentials focused on excelling their project in-hand, but they also aim to impact their overall contribution to business growth.

4. Measuring Metrics

Leadership is a crucial role from a business perspective. It not only involves providing guidance to others but also taking important decisions that influence the dynamics of the organization. For analysing that, a number of metrics must be in place to assess the progress of the individual. Learning leaders must design their program to assess their high-potential leaders before, during and after going through the leadership training program.

5. Effective Communication

Communication skills play a vital role when it comes to managing processes among various divisions. It is critical for everyone to have a clear and transparent communication strategy for participants, their manager and other stakeholders involved in the program. Clear communication ensures that the right message is delivered, and high-potential talent is working to achieve what is required.

6. Understand Team Dynamics

Any leader, to excel in their role, is highly reliant on its team to do well, and it is the duty of the leader to manage their team efficiently and give them ample opportunities to learn and keep engaged. Amongst the top priorities for a leader, one is possessing the right knowledge of team dynamics. HIPOs must be prepared to comprehend and influence the drive for performance in a pivotal environment.

HIPOs are the future of an organization. Not only is it necessary to identify them, but equally crucial to create a program that ensures their highest level of engagement and development. Businesses must opt for an objective and technical approach for HIPO selection, and give enough opportunities to learn and grow. L&D leaders should deeply consider how their leadership development strategy will promote your organization’s agenda of inclusivity. To understand the holistic approach on Life Cycle Of High-Potential Employees, read our latest eBook, created by Jim Caruso—Director of Leadership and Organizational Development at Infopro Learning. He is a global talent development and executive education leader who has designed, facilitated, managed and customized over 265 leadership development acumen courses.