When organizations set out to fill a role, the hiring process often feels like an endless quest for “high potential” candidates. Traditionally, this term has been a placeholder for individuals who seemingly possess a wealth of skills, experience, and potential for the future. They are the gold standard—on paper, at least.
By fixating on this ideal, organizations are not only overlooking incredible talent but also hindering their ability to grow and innovate. It’s time to reimagine hiring as an opportunity to infuse organizations with the diverse, and often intangible, qualities that lead to sustainable success.
The Pursuit of Comfort
Why do companies fall into this trap? A sense of immediacy, the fear of making a wrong hire, or perhaps the lure of efficiency leads us to believe that high potential equals a guarantee of success.
But in the grand equation of business, predictability is not the magic bullet. It is the curveball, the unexpected, the innovation that drives progress. When businesses only prioritize those with applicable skills, they remain within their comfort zone and overlook candidates who can push boundaries. It’s when they venture beyond the familiar and invest in potential that they can truly gain a competitive edge.
- Rethinking High Potential
The first step to understanding the high potential myth is recognizing that skill-centric hiring perpetuates uniformity. By focusing on a universal checklist of qualifications, businesses are inadvertently seeking replicas of their most “ideal” employees. They create a “comfort zone” of competent workers who, while surely capable, all share the same patterns of thought, experiences, and limitations. Organizations should instead view job descriptions as wish lists—comprehensive, but hardly definitive. What can be taught? What can’t be taught? Many skills can be acquired through training, while what is often dismissed as “soft” – adaptability, creativity, emotional intelligence – is much harder to teach. - Assessing Your Hiring Process
It’s every bit the hiring manager’s responsibility to identify these non-negotiable skills as must-haves. These might be industry-specific knowledge or cultural alignment, but they will supersede the contents of any job description. As a business owner, it’s not always clear how effectively your company manages the hiring process. Taking our Hiring Skills Assessment offers an excellent starting point to evaluate your business’s hiring capabilities. You might not be aware of the strengths and weaknesses in your hiring strategy, or how it compares to industry standards. Our assessment provides a unique report detailing these insights – with this information, you can implement new procedures that lead to better hires, reduce staff turnover, and ultimately improve your business’s overall performance. - A Shift in Mindset
A shift in mindset is required – companies must foster a culture of learning before recruitment. They should focus on identifying the strengths of individual team members, building environments where growth is not paved with pre-determined skills, but with a mindset that endorses adaptability, resilience, and innovation. To achieve this, hiring managers must become talent scouts. Evaluations must be forward-thinking, focusing less on immediate impact and more on the canvas for potential value that candidates present. Recognizing the value of potential is crucial for ensuring the longevity of businesses.
The Path Forward
Challenging the high potential myth can transform hiring methods and organizational values for the better. It’s essential to redefine “high potential” to recognize key qualities for success, even though it may push you out of your comfort zone. True innovators and leaders—and their success stories—often emerge from such challenges.
In today’s fast-paced world, adaptability and potential are our greatest assets. We need to value them more, moving away from the outdated idea that only past achievements matter. We must adopt a new view of “high potential” as an opportunity for continuous learning, innovation, and growth.
Ready to unlock the true potential of your hiring process? Contact us today at 844-874-7253 x4 or [email protected] to learn how we can help you reshape your approach to talent acquisition and harness the full potential of every candidate.
