cracking the code on high potential finding engaging and retaining your best

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© 2013 Halogen Software. All rights reserved. All contents are confidential.

Cracking the code on high potential: Finding, engaging, and retaining your best

Henryk Krajewski, Ph.D.

President

Anderson Leadership Group

@buildvalue


Topic list

I. Emphasizing the talent shortage and

engagement problem

II. Understanding High Potentials/High Performers

and how to find/select them

III. Engaging High Potentials: A Research Report

IV. How to Retain and Engage High Potentials


An increasing cynicism…Why?

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Productivity

Hourly Compensation

**Shaded areas represent recessions


I. EMPHASIZING THE TALENT

SHORTAGE/ENGAGEMENT PROBLEM

CRACKING THE CODE ON HIGH POTENTIALS


Why you care…

Type of Job

% more productivity Superior performers vs. Average performers

Low Skill

+19%

High Skill

+32%

Professionals and Managers

+48%

Schmidt and Hunter, 1998


True Performance Distribution

O’Boyle & Aguinis, 2012, N = 633,000

Normal Curve

1% of Output from the Top

1%

Nu

mb

er o

f Em

plo

yee

s

Performance


True Performance Distribution

Normal Curve

Pareto Curve

10% of Output from the Top 1%

Nu

mb

er o

f Em

plo

yee

s

Performance O’Boyle & Aguinis, 2012, N = 633,000


Source: Business Week, based on data from the

Bureau of Labor Statistics as of 09-09

.

Demographic and Economic Shifts are

Accelerating a “Talent Mismatch”


Bill Clinton at the DNC, September, 2012

“But already there are already 3

million jobs open and unfilled in

America…mostly because workers

don’t have the skills to do them.

The old economy is not coming

back, we’ve got to build a new

one!”


New Rules for a New Generation…

The US Labor

Department estimates

that today's worker will

have held 10-14 jobs by

the age of 38!


II. UNDERSTANDING HIGH

POTENTIALS AND HIGH PERFORMERS

AND HOW TO ASSESS THEM



High Potential vs. High Performance?

• Do all high performers have potential?

• Are all high potentials high performers?

• Are all low potentials low performers?

• Can low performers have high potential?

• Can high performers have low potential?


Source: Adapted from Corporate Leadership Council Realizing the Full Potential

of Rising Talent Volume I: A Quantitative Analysis of the Identification and

Development of High-Potential Employees, 2005.

Ability

Commitment

& Values Motivation

Spotlight on High Potentials: A Definition

The High Potential Employee:

Is someone with the ability,

motivation, values and

commitment to rise and

succeed in a more senior,

critical positions.


Ability

Commitment

& Values Motivation

Ability

• Thinking strategically

• Dealing with complexity

• Emotional intelligence

Commitment and Values

• Passion for and model of

values and culture

• Personal engagement in client

success

• Discretionary effort

Motivation

• Desires advancement in

complexity of responsibilities

• Conscientious and always

seeking to improve oneself

Spotlight on High Potentials: A Definition

Source: Adapted from Corporate Leadership Council Realizing the Full Potential

of Rising Talent Volume I: A Quantitative Analysis of the Identification and

Development of High-Potential Employees, 2005.


Assessing Potential, Readiness and Risk


Poll Question:

Which do you think is the best single predictor of future

performance?

• Personality testing/Leadership style

• Structured interviews

• IQ/critical thinking

• Emotional Intelligence

• Letters of Recommendation


The hard truth about mental ability


What adds to mental ability?

• Personality tests

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion (affiliation,

boldness, dominance, etc.)

• Integrity/Dutifulness

• Past-behavior interviews

• Commitment/aspiration

• Values/value fit

0

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60

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T1 T2 T3 T4 T5

Maintenance Curve

Performance

Learning Phase: IQ

Maintenance Phase: Personality


What about EQ?

• Mayer (MSCEIT; 1999; 2003) sets EQ as an ability

• Four dimensions:

I. Perceiving and identifying emotions

II. Using emotional feedback in decision-making processes

III. Reasoning about, and understanding, fine distinctions and

emotional development

IV. Managing and controlling emotions in both the self and

others


Simple science

IQ

Personality

Structured Interview

EQ

Future Performance


Rolling up the data: The Nine Box Grid


Talent pool gap analysis


Best practice

1. Teach managers about potential

2. HR should ‘reality check’ managers’ ratings

3. Do a deep dive to validate potential and

correctly “stream” candidates

4. Assess fit and competence over time using

talent pools


III. ENGAGING HIGH POTENTIALS: A

RESEARCH REPORT



Scope:

• 45 companies across the globe

• 5,314 “high potential” respondents

Purpose:

• Define the attributes that are most important to top talent

• Discover which of these attributes drives engagement

What do High Potentials Really Want?


“Desired Attribute” Categories

• Leadership

• Values

• Culture

• Comp/Benefits/Development

• Work Environment

• Brand Attributes

Engagement

Outcomes

• Commitment

• Intent to Stay

IMPACT ON

Analysis Overview

Defined from over 30,000 individual data points


Commitment Intent to Stay

• Values: honesty and

integrity

• Brand: Company

known for #1 in

market and best

talent

• Culture: A sense of

belonging and

camaraderie

Drivers of Engagement Outcomes:

Results

• Comp/Benefits/Dev

• Values

• Culture

• Leadership

• Work Environment

• Brand attributes


Forbes’ Best Companies to Work For


IV. HOW TO RETAIN AND ENGAGE

HIGH POTENTIALS



Poll Question:

Does your organization have a dedicated high potential

“value proposition” initiative?

• Yes

• No

• Currently planning on this topic


The DIY High Potential Value Proposition

Leadership/Executive View High Potential View

Desired work attributes Work attributes

to realize strategy

Perceived work attributes Perceived work attributes of

employees’ experience

Gap

Gap

Gap Gap


AN EXAMPLE…

Work Attributes

HiPo’s Got…

HiPo’s Gave…

BRAND: Living with

a Commitment to

Excellence

Built-in time to reflect on

problems and solutions that

matter to real people

Accept personal accountability

to be measured on what they

create and how useful it is

VALUES: Working

in a ethics-

conscious way

Ethical decision-making by

management – transparent

guidelines

Demonstrate that they will keep

commitments to the company

and its clients

CULTURE:

Belonging to a

Winning Team

A firm that attracts top talent

and recognizes merit

Updating and retooling their

skills as market needs require

The Deal


Job Characteristics Model (Hackman, &

Oldham, 1976)

• Skill variety – using a number of different talents in a number of different

activities

• Task identity – completion of a whole task from beginning to end with a

visible outcome vs. only a piece of the work

• Task significance – tasks that have a significant and identifiable impact

on the lives or work of other people

• Autonomy – a sense of control and discretion over how one executes

one’s work

• Individualized feedback loops – individualized consideration with a

consistent flow of information to allow one to adjust, amend, and learn.


The Replay: Three Signs of a Miserable

Job

• Anonymity: managers have little interest in them as people with

unique lives, aspirations, and interests.

• Irrelevance: When workers cannot see how their job makes a

difference. "Every employee needs to know that the work they do

impacts someone's life -- a customer, a coworker, even a

supervisor -- in one way or another."

• Immeasurement: The inability of employees to assess for

themselves their contributions or success.

Adapted from Three Signs of a Miserable Job, Lencioni, P. (2007).


The Replay: DRIVE

• Autonomy: This is our “default setting;” being autonomous and

self-directed.

• Mastery: The bar for Mastery is ever evolving – it’s impossible to

fully realize, which makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring.

• Purpose: The most deeply motivated people hitch their desires to

a cause greater and more enduring than themselves.

Adapted from Drive, Pink, D. (2010).


Job Characteristics Model (1976)

• Skill variety – using a number of different talents in a number of different

activities

• Task identity – completion of a whole task from beginning to end with a

visible outcome vs. only a piece of the work

• Task significance – tasks that have a significant and identifiable impact

on the lives or work of other people

• Autonomy – a sense of control and discretion over how one executes

one’s work

• Individualized feedback loops – individualized consideration with a

consistent flow of information to allow one to adjust, amend, and learn.


-3

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2

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2 Bad 1 bad Equal # 1 Good 2 Good

Ma

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itu

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fere

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Po

ten

tia

l

Net Change inPotential

How to Ruin HiPOs: Bad Managers

Source: Adapted from Corporate Leadership Council Realizing the Full Potential of Rising Talent

Volume I: A Quantitative Analysis of the Identification and Development of High-Potential

Employees, 2005.


Key MANAGER Characteristics that lead to

realized potential

• Leading through complex change

• Strategic thinking

• Coaching and development mentality

What do great managers look like?


Manager Tools: Development Plans and

Coaching


Take-aways and actions…

• Recognize the mandate – don’t look away!

• Understand high potential and educate your managers.

• Develop formal “HiPo” validation process using deeper level

assessments.

• Use simple, practical online tools to capture and powerfully illustrate

your workforce at a glance.

• Monitor and track HiPo’s in different talent pools and regularly assess

their fit for promotion.

• Create an explicit “HiPo value proposition” to attract and retain talent.

• Use the JCM (1976) as a checklist to ensure the right work environment

for your high potentials.

• Find and develop manager specialists that you rely on to develop key

talent.


Questions?

Thank You!

For more information:

Henryk Krajewski, Ph.D., President, The Anderson Leadership Group

[email protected] @buildvalue

Connie Costigan, Director of Marketing and Communications, Halogen Software

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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