Talent Development for Leaders: Develop Your High-Potentials

Prioritize time as your greatest investment by developing high-potential employees and those new in position to maximize ROI, build a strong talent pipeline, and delegate to grow all staff.

Identify high potential by assessing results, grit, and ambition, while nurturing openness to learning through feedback and coaching; set career goals to guide development and leadership readiness.

Discover which leadership qualities are hard to develop, such as integrity and service orientation, and which are easier, like communication and time management. Use behavioral interviewing to hire for growth.

Invest in mentoring across diverse teams to close sponsorship gaps, recognizing that women and people of color are less likely to have sponsors, and ensure development reflects your community.

Develop high-potential talent by identifying skill gaps and building new capabilities for next-level roles. Recognize strengths and work on weaknesses to boost confidence, competence, and leadership effectiveness.

Identify and invest development time in your high-potential employees using a mix of science and art, then adjust your focus to accelerate your team's growth.

Identify leadership competencies aligned with your organization’s priorities to empower high-potential employees. Keep development simple and focus on leading others, the business, and yourself.

Identify today’s and tomorrow’s skill gaps for your high potential employee, linking current performance to skills needed in the next job, so they excel now and are ready for promotion.

Develop leaders learn to manage change by focusing on one to two competencies, creating a safe environment for mistakes, and building a culture of continuous learning to strengthen growth.

Select a development focus for a high-potential employee using the deliberate practice template, identifying critical today and future leadership competencies, guided by feedback, and defining success through behaviors and outcomes.

Discover the why behind high potential development, uncovering root cause and beliefs that drive performance. Learn to distinguish skill from will, use the 5 Why Technique, and tailor development plans.

Identify root causes of planning gaps by examining skill issues, time management, and milestone dates, then collaborate with the employee to create a targeted development plan.

identify the root cause to set the right development focus, then craft open, safe feedback conversations with high-potential employees to avoid defensiveness and drive tactics for leadership skills.

Develop a balanced development plan centered on on-the-job learning, mentoring, and targeted training. Have high-potentials lead weekly meetings and draft quarterly plans to practice skills and form strong habits.

Promotes cross-functional projects as a growth tactic for high-potential employees, fostering strategic thinking, planning, partnerships, and visibility. Emphasizes clear objectives, fairness, and a balanced approach to ensure sustainable development.

Develop habits turn development plans into lasting growth by turning intentions into routines. Set aside time for strategic planning, appreciation notes, and pre-meeting context to move behavior and accelerate performance.

Leaders turn training into action by setting 90-day practice goals and reflecting on learnings. They meet before and after sessions and follow up monthly to transfer skills to daily work.

Leaders develop by engaging mentors, coaches, peers, cross-functional partners, and senior leaders who share tactics, provide safe guidance, and support deliberate practice plans to expand skills like P&L management.

Discover how deliberate practice builds expertise through motivation, task design aligned with preexisting knowledge, and immediate feedback (the four components) to develop leaders and high-potential employees' development plan.

Create a development plan using the deliberate practice form, with specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound tactics; reflect on 70-20-10 learning and co-create three to four actionable activities for buy-in.

Explore the difficulty of change and resistance while developing others, as high-potential leaders stay motivated; use motivational questioning and deliberate practice to reflect, sustain growth, and anticipate challenges.

Develop a growth mindset in high-potentials by recognizing fixed-mindset cues, embracing mistakes as learning, and using feedback to persist through setbacks and monitor progress.

Create a deliberate action plan with activities to support your learner. Schedule reviews of the action plan and celebrate achievements with notes or boss updates to secure credit.

Identify high-potential employees, invest strategically in development, and address derailers while grasping how and why development works to develop a key leadership competency and drive results, loyalty, and joy.