Managing potential with high performance
By Evelyn Cardona
Countless companies seek every day to accompany their teams to better manage their potential, with this they are constantly wondering what are the right tools, and how to manage a team that meets high standards in the operation, which are people with a high degree of commitment and in turn achieve results in the shortest possible time.
Professionals who occupy executive and management positions are increasingly required to maintain essential competencies, we call them today essential as opposed to what we commonly know as hard and soft competencies. And we have been required to be references for others, but the question is, how do I develop what I do not know 100%? Here companies and their front-line leaders must first believe and then implement in order to have high-performance teams maximizing their potential.
There are accompaniment tools and processes from mentoring, consulting and coaching to determine if what the system requires is valid to operate initially. This is establishing the bases of talent management.
This makes me make reference to SME companies that want to implement great models and strategies that are heard in the labor market and come to impose a trend, which is not functional for everyone. I have already lived it, in organizations where I had the opportunity to lead implementation projects that, wanting to accelerate to be at the forefront, stagnated tactical, operational and strategic processes in the business.
To manage potential is to know the potential within the company, once leaders are clear about the objectives and competencies of their work teams, they will be able to accompany them in a better way to manage performance.
Not differentiating high potential with high performance is one of the reasons why talent management fails and team motivation is lost along the way, that is when we do not know which program may be right for each team.
Some characteristics of people with high potential can be to maintain initiative, have aspirations in the medium and short term, high level of commitment, with a growth mindset, also seeks feedback for constant improvement. While people with high performance, have constant willingness, have clarity on the goals to be achieved, manage their time and productivity, are organized and disciplined.
There are performance and potential tools that tell us specifically about the axes between high potential and performance, giving us more clarity on how to better accompany the team.
High potential and performance: These people are the ones that, if we do not manage to identify quickly to allow them to continue growing in the organization, they will probably put both characteristics to work in their favor to find another company where they can do it.
High potential and low performance: These are usually the executives who have recently joined the company, or have been promoted, and have not yet mastered the hard or technical skills and competencies as mentioned above. But they have the potential to exceed the requirements of the position and continue to grow in the company. It is necessary to help them improve their performance.
High performance and low potential: They are those who meet the expectations of their position. They are important to the company, but do not have the skills to continue to move up. These executives are good professionals whom we must keep motivated in their positions. They are suitable for positions that are not vital to the company’s strategy.
Low potential and low performance: These are the people we must give the opportunity to improve their performance. If they do not improve, then it is essential to accompany them to find out if the company is for them and vice versa.
In the four contexts it is important to give them the support that each one needs, either with an intensive mentoring, training or coaching program, each one of them is important to define it with a key and precise objective to include their own management indicators (kpi’s), and thus better measure the results with purpose.
One of the methodologies within the coaching processes that I have developed through the needs of accompanying people who seek to develop their potential and performance is to do it in a conscious way to achieve results with purpose, the CREA method.
Clarity: Giving people clarity in their objectives, goals and why they do what they do, giving them the necessary feedback is much easier to give them the path of their passage in the organization for their growth.
Results with purpose: Every organization needs to generate results and today they are accelerated, so why not give people the opportunity to find in themselves what results they want to achieve in their being for their doing and execute at more advanced levels from their essence of being the best at what they do, once the individual purpose is found, organizational purposes will be covered.
Strategy: As what we are constantly looking for is the how, the strategy and the right steps will pave the way to develop more leaders in the company, then in the strategy phase, is to look for tools, mentors, facilitators, coaches, guides that will guide us in a better way to get there faster.
Action: When we talk about establishing the bases, it is to start with small steps that are carried out, and that can be measured, because what we cannot measure, we cannot improve, the action is to assign responsibility, and make sure that there is accountability with commitment.
Developing competencies that meet high potential and performance is not an easy task, but once we understand that each person has their own developmental skill needs, that is when we reach the level of awareness of how best to accompany people to reach their full potential.
Evelyn Cardona | Certified Coach ICF | High Performance and Productivity Coach
