In today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape, identifying and developing high-potential talent is crucial to ensuring organizational success. But what makes someone a high-potential employee, often known as a “HiPo”?
How can organizations build frameworks to recognize and nurture such future leaders, especially in regions like Asia-Pacific, where cultural nuances and business dynamics vary significantly?
To gain deeper insight into these questions, HRM Asia spoke with Nicole Dickie, Senior Consultant, International Distributors, for Hogan Assessments. Dickie emphasized the importance of personality in shaping leadership potential. As Robert Hogan, psychologist and founder of Hogan Assessments, famously says, “Who you are is how you lead.”
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HiPo employees are often viewed as an organization’s future leaders, but defining what makes someone a HiPo can be challenging. Many organizations fall into the trap of focusing solely on an employee’s current performance or visibility within the organization. Hogan’s approach goes deeper, assessing potential through the lens of personality.
According to Dickie, Hogan’s model focuses on three aspects of leadership potential:
- Dependability and competence (Leadership Foundations): “HiPo individuals must master the fundamental aspects of being a good employee and dependable leader,” says Dickie. This means consistently following processes, delivering on commitments, fostering a positive work environment and being likable.
- Perceived influence (Leadership Emergence): The second aspect, often more familiar to most organizations, reflects an individual’s ability to be seen as a leader within the workplace. “Traditional HiPo identification often hinges on an individual’s organizational visibility and political acumen,” she says. While this is important—being noticed by leadership and inspiring others—it is not the only measure of potential.
- Team and talent development (Leadership Effectiveness): The third and perhaps most crucial aspect is the ability to build and lead high-performing teams. Dickie notes that this includes attracting and developing talent, securing necessary resources, and achieving strategic business objectives.
“These essential aspects of personality set a HiPo apart, distinguishing them through their employability, perceived influence and leadership potential, and capacity to lead teams towards successful outcomes,” she says. “By focusing on these characteristics, organizations can better identify and nurture their succession pipeline with high-quality future leaders.”
And as organizations expand across different regions, especially in the rapidly evolving Asia-Pacific market, they face unique challenges. Cultural differences, economic conditions, and business strategies all influence how high-potential employees are identified and developed.
Benefits of using personality data in HiPo identification
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution for talent management practices, including the identification and development of HiPos,” Dickie says. “The benefit of using personality data for supporting HiPo programs, however, is that this is applicable to all organizations. Incorporating personality into HiPo programs offers objective data that can eliminate or at least mitigate the influence of organizational politics and leader preferences, offering valuable insights that meaningfully differentiate employees.”
For organizations without an existing HiPo model, Hogan’s framework can serve as a foundation. But Dickie emphasizes flexibility, explaining, “Even if an organization already has their own HiPo model, they can easily incorporate personality characteristics insights to match their own definitions of high potential and to satisfy the specific needs of a HiPo program internally or in their market or country.”
This customization is particularly valuable in Asia-Pacific, where organizations need to remain agile and continuously realign talent strategies with changing market dynamics.
Hogan encourages organizations to adopt the Japanese “kaizen” business philosophy of continuous improvement to ensure their HiPo programs evolve alongside business objectives.
HiPo programs as key to succession planning
Succession planning and HiPo identification go hand in hand. According to Dickie, HiPo identification programs are part of the foundation of an organization’s succession strategy and should be closely connected with the overall talent strategy. “Succession planning, just like all strategic initiatives,” she says, “must be data-driven to be effective and support employees’ immediate role development and future role development.”
An example of this approach can be seen in a city government’s development of a new role: chief heat officer. As climate change increasingly affects business operations and public safety, this government needed a leader who could oversee innovative heat reduction initiatives. Using Hogan’s assessments, the hiring managers identified two directors whose personalities aligned with the innovation, process management and conscientiousness required for this future leadership position.
“The focus on strategic self-awareness, leading to behavioral change and maturity, is relevant to both immediate and long-term roles,” says Dickie. This process not only boosts employees in their current roles but also helps develop the leaders of tomorrow.
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Additionally, organizations often wonder about the optimal time horizon for HiPo development. Although this can vary depending on the business strategy, Dickie suggests a two- to five-year window for effective development. “This provides time and opportunity for talent to develop their strategic self-awareness, change behaviors and gain maturity, as well as to acquire key experiences and to build critical skills needed for their potential next step,” she says.
Consider her example from an insurance organization in Asia-Pacific. By leveraging Hogan’s HiPo talent report, the firm identified promising branch managers and implemented a two-year development program combining quarterly training with practical experience.
“Since starting the program, several HiPos have been promoted,” Dickie says, “and the organization has seen significant growth in organizational bench strength.”
Josephine Tan wrote this story for HRM Asia. Find more from this author at HRMAsia.com
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