Six Tactics to Re-Engage High-Potential Management Talent

Posted By: Joseph Daniel McCool
Filed Under: leadership, joseph daniel mccool, talent management, market trends, retention, engagement, re-engage, corporate executive board

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A recent survey by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) finds that one-quarter of employer-identified, high-potential leaders plan to leave their company within the year. But employers need not see that statistic — and the flight of top talent — as a foregone conclusion.

The same survey finds that an additional 21 percent of employees today identify themselves as "highly disengaged," a figure which has risen nearly three-fold since 2007. The CEB finds that companies can apply the following tactics to identify, re-engage and more effectively manage high-potential employees:

Stimulate — Emerging leaders need stimulating work, recognition and the chance to grow. If your company doesn't provide these, they can quickly disengage.
Test — Explicitly test candidates for internal promotion for ability, engagement and aspiration to make sure they're able to handle the tougher roles as their careers progress.
Manage — Having line managers oversee high-potential employees only limits their access to opportunities and encourages hoarding of talent. Instead, manage these high-potential employees at the corporate level.
Challenge — High-potential employees need to be in positions where new capabilities can — or must — be acquired.
Recognize — High-potential employees will be more engaged if they are recognized through pay, so offer them differentiated compensation and recognition.
Engage — Incorporate high-potential employees into strategic planning. Share future strategies with them and emphasize their role in making them come to fruition.

The key take-away here is that if companies don't proactively address high-potential engagement and retention now, they should expect to incur significant recruiting costs related to replacing these individuals. Yet, the opportunity cost of disengagement will exact an even steeper toll on corporate output.

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Joseph Daniel McCool's avatar Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.