Today’s organizations find it challenging to locate and put in place a new generation of leadership that is both proactive and pragmatic. Disproportionately this new generation of leaders will come from the pool of people within an organization, often referred to as, “high potentials.” But there’s the rub. By what criteria do we decide whether somebody is a high potential suited for a leadership position?

Face it, not everyone is a high-potential. Some have reached their potential and others are quite comfortable where they are. They are good, if not great, performers who are satisfied with their accomplishments and focused on doing what they do best. This doesn’t imply mediocrity—it simply implies that the organization and the individual have converged and a degree of leveling has set it. Then there’s the “me-me” group who are so enamored with their potential but never seem quite right for the next level of leadership.

So what are the criteria by which you evaluate whether someone can be a high potential leader?

Let me suggest five.

1. Knowledge: They know their business. Simply put, high-potential leaders are those individuals who have displayed a certain amount of accumulated expertise. This expertise may be technical or it may be based in networks, but it’s invaluable for an organization. More importantly they understand how their activities, their sector, and their realm of knowledge, is related to the wider organizational agenda.

2. Reputation: They have legitimacy in the eyes of others. Others in the organization must appreciate the relevance of the knowledge base that a high-potential possesses. It’s a simple reality that having expertise or a skill base isn’t enough to make one a high-potential leader. High potential leaders must also have the ability to garner the professional respect of others.

3. Ambition: They have a strong career mindset. We want our high-potentials to be ambitious—but we want them to be ambitious in a very focused way. And the best way to get a sense of their ambition is to evaluate their commitment to their career progression. High potentials need to be committed to accumulating new responsibilities, new successes, acquiring additional knowledge, and, for better or worse, achieving additional recognition.

4. Partnering: They understand the importance of working with others. While a strong career mindset is important, high-potentials must also have a deep appreciation of partnership. A high-potential leader’s partnering ability shouldn’t be a politically correct exercise, but rather a pragmatic, tactical skill that will allow them to make better, more informed decisions. Lone-rangers and lone-wolves may be creative and ambitious, but they may not be suitable for the next leadership rung in the organizational ladder.

5. Courage: They are bounded risk takers. High potential leaders must understand that no matter how good they think a decision may be—they are making it under conditions of uncertainty. No matter how much information you have, no matter how many cost-benefit analyses you have done, no matter how many market surveys you have completed, a high potential leader will know all information is limited. They’ll know that some decisions are inevitable, but they’ll also have to the courage to take risks.

Identifying high-potential leaders requires an appreciation of what it is we want from our leaders. We want our leaders to know their business, therefore knowledge is critical. We want others to accept their expertise, therefore reputation is critical. We want to them to be personally driven, therefore ambition is essential. We want them to understand that nothing can be can done alone, therefore partnering is critical. And finally, we want them to know that nothing is guaranteed, therefore courage is fundamental.

These five criteria, when identified appropriately–be it through skill matrixes, interviews, delineated questionnaires, or peer review–will go a long way toward identifying high potential leaders. Your next challenge is how to give them the skills they need…but that’s the subject for another article.

Tagged as ambition, courage, high potential, high potential leader, identify high potential leaders, knowledge, leadership, leading, partnering, reputation + Categorized as Features, Ideas, Leadership, Managerial Competence