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#RPOAWeekly: Predicting Potential Talent

Written by Lamees Abourahma | Fri, Sep 08,2017 @ AM

Potential: the ability to adapt to and grow into increasingly complex roles and environments is the key to selecting top executives according to Fernandez-Araoz in his “21st-century talent spotting” article published by Harvard Business Review. Not only important to executive positions, potential is key to other management and white collar jobs as well. Predicting potential talen based on personality is the topic of an upcoming RPOA webinar presented by renowned speaker and published author Kim E. Ruyle. This week’s #RPOAWeekly we keep the focus on finding potential talent and present the following top resources on the topic.

Finding Authentic High Potential Talent in the Crowd: Where’s Waldo? - Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association 

Research indicates that about 40% of high potentials stall or derail soon after they're identified. Predictions about future success are abysmal. False positives are common. Many or most managers are incapable of distinguishing between performance and potential. This webinar reviews research and provides a framework to accurately identify high potential talent, accelerate their development, and retain these critical employees.

21st-Century Talent Spotting- Harvard Business Review

For the past several decades, organizations have based their hiring decisions on competencies. But we have entered a new era of talent spotting. Geopolitics, business, industries, and jobs are changing so rapidly that it’s impossible to predict the capabilities employees and leaders will need even a few years out. The question now is not whether people have the right skills; it’s whether they have the potential to learn new ones. 

5 Keys For Predicting Career Potential - Forbes

Predicting potential for future success based on past performance and demonstrated skills has its shortfall: it only works when the future work of an organization is very similar to its past. Here is a five-factor model created by Adam Mitchinson and Robert Morris of the Teachers College, Columbia University for identifying learning agility.

Look for These Six Qualities When Assigning Your Next Leader - RPOA

Some believe there are six factors that help predict an effective leader. While you might not be able to suss out these qualities from a candidate right from the interview process, they provide a good guideline for performance assessment when deciding on a choice for a leadership position. 

Using learning agility to identify high potentials – Korn Ferry

This whitepaper defines learning agility, presents an instrument which measures it, and investigates the extent to which learning agility varies across four regions of the world. In addition, the authors discuss the implications of Korn Ferry's findings on global talent management.