Defining One's Potential

I just put an interesting article in my Blog "I Think, I Like"  in which Lou Adler posits that experience is overrated.  He says, "experience and skills are overrated. A continuous track record of exceptional performance in a variety of increasing complex situations isn’t."

This article got me thinking about a prevalent practice in corporations - assessing employee potential.  It also made me acknowledge that in defining potential, companies have made this way, way harder then it needs to be.  Look at this definition, from the Harvard Business Review:

"High potentials always deliver strong results, master new types of expertise, and recognize that behavior counts. But it’s their intangible X factors that truly distinguish them from the pack.  The Four X Factors of High Potentials :

1. Drive to excel

2. Catalytic learning capability

3. Enterprising spirit

4. Dynamic sensors"

Catalytic learning capability???  Dynamic sensors???  Who talks like that???

I think Lou Adler got it exactly right.  A person who has high potential consistently outperforms her or his peers, and does so while taking on jobs that are of higher and higher degrees of difficulty. In addition, while achieving differentiated levels of performance, a person considered high potential must behave in a manner that is consistent with  the company's culture and values.

Think of it like this:  potential should be measured in a manner consistent with the Olympic diving method of measurement; you'll be measured on the degree of difficulty of the dive, on your performance of it, and on whether the judges like you!

The implication for companies is interesting.  When considering one's potential, a company needs to look not ahead, but backward.  Who have been  the highest performers?  How hard have their jobs been?  Have they demonstrated the ability to perform well as the jobs have gotten harder?  Have they treated others with respect?

I am a firm believer that the best predictor of future performance is one's past performance.  I now believe that potential can be quantifed by accumulating one's past performance while factoring in degree of difficulty and behavior.

That, to me, seems more robust than measuring if one has an "enterprising spirit".  No offense, Harvard...

Paul E. DuCharme. January 2013.