In my book, Replaceable, An Obsession with Succession Planning one of the most important aspects to succession planning is identifying high potentials in your organization and developing them for future leadership roles.
Frederic Funck describes the four quadrants of leadership development with one of the quadrants being moral development where leaders shift their focus to a moral, values based leadership style. Values can’t be underestimated and are critical to leadership success. The most successful leaders aren’t the smartest in the room but are self-aware of their strengths and challenges and have a broad view of what success is for their company. That broad view focuses on strengthening all their stakeholders-employees, communities, and investors.
So, when you are defining what a high potential exhibits in your organization, you need to be clear on your company values. And then evaluate leaders and future leaders against those values by determining the behaviors employees will need to display to support your company values. These behaviors will become part of leadership core competencies as described in Chapter 6 of Replaceable, An Obsession with Succession Planning.
Remember, leadership development is much more than developing skills.
