How to Identify and Develop Employees with High Talent

Companies often struggle to find their next-generation leaders. How do you figure out who has — or can acquire — the right strengths to tackle your team's most challenging problems?

In the face of such uncertainty, we tend to concentrate on what we know: we search for employees who met their performance goals. And if you're filling a well-known position where candidates have had the opportunity to display the requisite abilities, this strategy is effective.

But past performance does not always predict who can perform new tasks. The past performance also makes it tricky to spot high-potential employees early in their careers. Consultants at ghSMART created a model for predicting leadership potential based on observable, measurable behaviors rather than achievements. They conducted in-depth studies of 1,500 people, ranging from entry-level professionals to senior executives, using a database of more than 23,000 candidate assessments for employment in public and private firms. They looked at their actions and discovered three psychological characteristics that accurately predict people's ability to grow and adapt to new roles: