Potential Energy

Businesses are bracing for a sea change: Baby boomers are reaching retirement age. Many companies know that in a few years, they will face the task of filling executive positions. In fact, the ones that have kept up with their succession planning are already doing something about it.

To get ready for the future, those companies are calling upon consulting firms and schools that offer “high-potential” training programs, which prepare midlevel managers for higher leadership positions. The programs are geared toward people who appear willing and able to step up to bigger responsibilities.

“A lot of organizations are finding that they are going to lose a substantial number of their managers and leaders as they move forward,” says Michael Leimbach, vice president of research and design at Wilson Learning Worldwide, an Edina-based work force development firm. “In fact, we have one client who realized that between now and 2015, they were going to lose over half of their managers and leaders. So they see a critical need to move forward with identifying, developing, and preparing high-potential individuals to effectively take on those leadership roles.”

A company’s culture depends heavily on the people at the top, so up-and-coming managers can affect an organization in profound ways. The way they are trained is a critical element in the company’s future success.

High-potential training not only helps prepare for future leadership needs, but it’s good for morale, too. It inspires employees who see that their employer is serious about promoting top performers.

“These are companies that are thinking, ‘I don’t want to have to recruit and hire from the outside if I can groom the talent from within,’” says Marc Sokol, senior vice president and global practice leader for leadership development solutions at Personnel Decisions International, a Minneapolis talent management and leadership firm. “So this is an important talent pool in the organization. You’re going to expect some kind of consequence for the culture, for how they work, for what they do. That’s something you need to acknowledge up front.”

A Common Thread

To know which employees should receive high-potential training, a company must know itself. “When we work with a client, we really start with clarifying their vision of leadership,” Leimbach says. “There is a character element that is critical in a high-potential employee, and what ‘character’ means is really based upon that organization’s vision and values. Does the employee value diversity? Do they value openness? What are they committed to personally? Those are the kinds of things that you want to know about them. Of course you want to know if they have good communication skills, a level of expertise, an understanding of the business. But you also want to know these underlying values and their purpose as a leader.”