Five Ways To Develop Future Leaders From Within

Having the right talent can make or break a company. However, how to attract and retain talented people has been a long-standing challenge for many businesses, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue even more. With the talent market becoming increasingly competitive, people having more choices afforded by diverse modes of working, and advanced technologies automating some of the human activities at work, workplace dynamics is constantly evolving. To navigate this new normal or the unknown can be overwhelming or intimidating for both organizational leaders and their employees. Today’s companies are facing a new set of hurdles that make it more difficult to secure talented employees.

To tackle these emerging challenges, companies today must seek creative or alternative solutions to build a sustainable talent pipeline from within. This means taking a critical look at your current practice for developing high potential employees and focusing more on growing leaders internally, rather than hiring externally.

As you embark on the journey of evaluating and enhancing your organizational capability, I encourage you to use the following five questions to guide your analysis and action planning.

What qualifies an employee to be a high potential in your company?

Research shows high-potential people share three distinguished attributes: aspiration, ability, and engagement.

Aspiration is the desire to take on responsibilities and challenges; it gives an individual the internal drive to rise to higher-level positions. Ability is a combination of innate characteristics and learned skills; it enables an individual to be effective in more responsible and senior roles. Engagement is the person’s emotional and rational commitment, discretionary efforts, and intent to stay; it motivates the individual to go beyond expectations and persevere in times of challenges.

In your company, ask yourself what it takes for an employee to be considered as a high potential, and whether these qualifications been clearly communicated to your employees.

How do you assess high potential over time?

A common approach to identify high-potential employees is using the results of annual performance evaluation and talent reviews as the base for decision making. There is nothing wrong with this practice. However, research suggests that only one in seven high performers is a true high potential and nearly 40 percent of internal job movers involve high potentials end in failure.

What this research  means is that high potential is not set in stone and can change over time. Therefore, while you may continue to use high performance as a starting point for identifying high-potential employees, you also need to conduct regular evaluations to determine if the potential is sustainable or adequate for future success.

How do you ensure internal promotions work for your company?

Ample evidence shows promoting from within a company is an effective human resources strategy with multiple benefits to both the employer and the employees. When promoting from within is encouraged or promoted, it gives employees a hope for career growth opportunities that will boost their morale, improve retention rate, reduce hiring or replacement costs, and facilitate role transitions.

With these proven benefits, it is worthwhile that your company invests sufficient resources in developing future leaders internally instead of hiring them from outside. Such investment will yield not only more financial return for your company, but also an emotional return from a more engaged workforce.

What leadership competences do you consider essential pre and post pandemic?

Leadership competencies refer to knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable individuals to lead effectively, and to contribute to personal, team, and organizational superior performance. Research shows that leading in normal times versus in turbulent times requires different leadership skill sets.

Given the far-reaching and drastic impact COVID-19 has made on businesses and workplaces on a global scale, it is worth evaluating whether you have taken time to evaluate existing competencies demonstrated by your leaders and managers pre- and during the pandemic so that you can determine the knowledge and skill gaps that need to be closed going forward.

What will you do to prepare stronger crisis leadership going forward?

If you have not done a leadership competence analysis for your company regularly and recently, it is time for you to do so. So much has changed during the past four years because of the pandemic that requires companies to rethink their leadership development strategies.

According to research, leadership competencies can be developed through five broad approaches: developmental relationships, developmental assignments, feedback processes, formal programs, and self-development activities. Here are three related questions for you to consider: first, what approach have you been using to prepare leaders for your company and how effective has it been during the pandemic? Second, what strategies will you adopt to develop stronger crisis leaders who can lead your company and people in times of high uncertainty?  Third, who are the individuals within your company that have emerged as crisis leaders during the pandemic, and how are you going to further develop them?

If you want to gain more insights into these questions and use developing and promoting from within as an effective strategy for talent acquisition and retention, please join me for an interactive webinar dedicated to this topic on Dec. 12, 2024 at 11 a.m. CT. You can register at this link.

Jia Wang is a professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on international and national human resource development, organization crisis management, and learning within organizations.