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

Cracking the code on high potential:
Finding, engaging, and retaining your best
Henryk Krajewski, Ph.D.
President
Anderson Leadership Group
@buildvalue

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

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?
6.300

6.100
5.900

Productivity

5.700
5.500
5.300
5.100

Hourly Compensation

4.900
4.700

**Shaded areas represent recessions

2010:2

2007:3

2004:4

2002:1

1999:2

1996:3

1993:4

1991:1

1988:2

1985:3

1982:4

1980:1

1977:2

1974:3

1971:4

1969:1

1966:2

1963:3

1960:4

1958:1

1955:2

1952:3

1949:4

1947:1

4.500

CRACKING THE CODE ON HIGH POTENTIALS

I. EMPHASIZING THE TALENT
SHORTAGE/ENGAGEMENT PROBLEM


Why you care…

% more productivity
Superior performers vs.
Average performers

Type of Job
Low Skill

+19%

High Skill

+32%

Professionals and Managers

+48%

Schmidt and Hunter, 1998


Number of Employees

True Performance Distribution

Normal
Curve

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


1% of Output
from the Top
1%

True Performance Distribution

Number of Employees

Pareto Curve

Normal
Curve

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


10% of
Output from
the Top 1%

Demographic and Economic Shifts are
Accelerating a “Talent Mismatch”

Source: Business Week, based on data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics as of 09-09
.


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?


Spotlight on High Potentials: A Definition

Ability
The High Potential Employee:

Commitment
& Values

Motivation

Is someone with the ability,
motivation, values and
commitment to rise and
succeed in a more senior,
critical positions.

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.


Spotlight on High Potentials: A Definition
Ability
• Thinking strategically
• Dealing with complexity
• Emotional intelligence

Ability

Commitment
& Values

Commitment and Values
• Passion for and model of
values and culture
• Personal engagement in client
success
• Discretionary effort

Motivation
Motivation
• Desires advancement in
complexity of responsibilities
• Conscientious and always
seeking to improve oneself

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?
Maintenance Curve
100
Maintenance Phase: Personality

80

• Personality tests

60

• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion (affiliation,
boldness, dominance, etc.)
• Integrity/Dutifulness

Performance

40
20

Learning Phase: IQ

0
T1

T2

• Past-behavior interviews
• Commitment/aspiration
• Values/value fit


T3

T4

T5

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

EQ

Personality

Structured Interview

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


What do High Potentials Really Want?
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


Analysis Overview
“Desired Attribute” Categories

•
•
•
•
•
•

Leadership
IMPACT ON
Values
Culture
Comp/Benefits/Development
Work Environment
Brand Attributes

Engagement
Outcomes
• Commitment
• Intent to Stay

Defined from over 30,000 individual data points

Drivers of Engagement Outcomes:
Results

Intent to Stay

• Comp/Benefits/Dev
• Values
• Culture

Commitment
•

Values: honesty and
integrity

•

Brand: Company
known for #1 in
market and best
talent

•

Culture: A sense of
belonging and
camaraderie

• 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
High Potential View

Leadership/Executive View

Desired work attributes

Work attributes
to realize strategy

Gap

Gap

Gap

Perceived work attributes

Perceived work attributes of
employees’ experience

Gap


AN EXAMPLE…
The Deal

Work Attributes

HiPo’s Got…

HiPo’s Gave…

BRAND: Living with Built-in time to reflect on
a Commitment to
problems and solutions that
Excellence
matter to real people

Accept personal accountability
to be measured on what they
create and how useful it is

VALUES: Working
in a ethicsconscious 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


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.


How to Ruin HiPOs: Bad Managers

Magnitude Difference in Potential

3
2
1
0
2 Bad

1 bad

Equal # 1 Good

2 Good

Net Change in
Potential

-1
-2
-3
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.


What do great managers look like?

Key MANAGER Characteristics that lead to
realized potential
• Leading through complex change
• Strategic thinking
• Coaching and development mentality


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
henryk@talgar.com
@buildvalue
Connie Costigan, Director of Marketing and Communications, Halogen Software
ccostigan@halogensoftware.com


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