In a time of skills shortages and increasingly competitive global markets, attracting and retaining human capital is paramount.¹ It’s not surprising, then, that talent management rates as a top business priority. As business and management experts Ram Charan and Bill Conalty say, "Talent will be the big differentiator between companies that succeed and those that don’t".²

The pressure is on for businesses to proactively attract, retain and develop talented employees. This is good news for young managers eager to move through the leadership pipeline. So in the minds of employers, what makes for top talent? According to recent literature, a common mistake is the failure to distinguish between high-performers and high-potentials. High-performing employees might be capable of achieving top performance in their current roles; but not every high-performer can go on to excel at the next level. In fact, research conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council in America found that less than 20% of high performers were successful when promoted to higher roles.³

...the employee must value and enjoy the organisation and therefore have a motivation to stay on.
 

For the Corporate Leadership Council it is the coexistence of three attributes that defines the high-potential employee: ability, aspiration and engagement. Ability—a mix of technical skills, emotional intelligence and cognitive agility—will only be fully realised if the employee aspires to advance and influence. And aspiration without mental or emotional nous is unlikely to succeed. Importantly, from the perspective of the organisation, an employee is only high-potential if she or he is engaged with that organisation. To put this another way, the employee must value and enjoy the organisation and therefore have a motivation to stay on.

If talent management is as critical a business issue as the literature suggests, young and aspiring managers can expect a much greater focus on attractive work conditions, and professional development that links clearly to business priorities and individual career plans. It’s a good time to climb.

¹Australian Human Resource Institute, 2010, people@work/2020, p. 14.
²Charan, Ram & Conalty, Bill, 2010, The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, p. 24.
³Corporate Leadership Council, 2005, Realizing the Full Potential of Rising Talent