The Leadership in Action Series: On Selecting, Developing, and Managing Talent

How to Put Your Finger on the High Potentials

David Berke

In any organization there are individuals who are considered to be the likely future leaders of the organization—in other words, to have high potential for leadership. Developing and retaining these high-potential individuals is crucial to an organization’s long-term success. But before high potentials can be developed and retained they must be identified.

The process of identifying high potentials might appear to be obvious and simple—you merely determine which individuals are most intelligent and perform best, right? But identifying high potentials—and just as important, the people who should no longer be considered high potentials—involves looking at more than just performance and IQ. ...