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The face of leadership is changing, literally. It’s common knowledge that over the next 5-15 years, many current leaders will be exiting the workforce. Much has been written about the merits of developing leaders now to fill the impending pipeline shortage. This makes sense. However, a fundamental question remains. How is your organization identifying the emerging leaders it needs to develop?

Since the importance of emerging leaders is a timely topic, we’ve recently been asked that very fundamental question ourselves. In response, we have identified several strategies that when implemented together help an organization identify its emerging leaders, both internally and externally.

Bring high-potential leaders in the door in the first place.

• The hiring phase offers a great opportunity for your organization to engage emerging leaders right off the bat. Seek to hire talented individuals with demonstrated or potential leadership qualities.
• Make the interview count. Add questions to the interview slate that are targeted at leadership. In this way, you give the potential candidate the opportunity to acknowledge his/her leadership qualities.
• Even if the most ideal interview process for identifying emerging leaders is in place, there is one important step left. Current managers must understand what potential leadership looks like. If they don’t, they will miss important cues given by the candidate.

Evaluate with a standard assessment.

• Once talent is brought into the organization, develop a fair process for evaluating high- potential leaders. Create a standardized system of measurement to ensure that all emerging leaders are evaluated using common criteria and behaviors.
• What should this system of measurement include? An effective system of measurement includes an assessment of common behaviors against expectations and an opportunity to write open comments.

Validate with current leaders, peers, business partners, and customers.

• Once an emerging leader is identified, it is vital to validate assessment data against the perceptions of those who work with the high-potential leader. The first step of this process is to facilitate a consistent chain of communication with their current leaders to gain their input and recommendations on what development areas currently exist and what opportunities could be made available to help accelerate potential.
• Encourage peer assessment, because peers help shed light on the true character of a potential leader and the consistency of that character.
• Before beginning to develop an emerging leader, don’t forget to ask for input from business partners (HR, for example), because they can provide confirmation that the potential leader is in good standing.
• Sometimes an outside opinion offers the kind of perspective you may need to help understand key behaviors deemed valuable to leaders in your organization. A great way to gather such information is by asking customers for their insights on the emerging leader. Customers deliver experiential feedback on how successful the potential leader has been in living up to expectations and representing the values of your organization.

Make sure your organization is ready for the imminent leadership challenge. Take the chance to turn this future challenge into a great opportunity by effectively identifying emerging leaders now.

There is little argument about the irreplaceable value that people bring to an organization. Having the right people, in the right jobs that suit their knowledge and skills, is a critical piece in enabling an organization to tip the scales toward high performance. Yet why do most organizations struggle to find the talent needed to help their organization execute its strategy?

The saying, “You have not, because you ask not,” is very true with regard to finding the right top talent for your organization. In many organizations, existing employees are unaware of the types of people their organization is seeking. If provided with this information, most employees will quickly scan their list of friends and acquaintances in an effort to find possible matches, because ultimately, people want to work with people they like. If your organization is not communicating its current and future talent needs to existing employees, a great opportunity is being lost.

As we enter a new year of talent planning, consider the following:

• How effective is your organization in communicating its current and future talent needs to all employees?
  Always remember that in today’s “connected” world, information can be distributed across many channels in a very short period of time. For example, sites and resources like Linked In, Plaxo, Twitter, and Facebook enable people to share information to many of their closest friends and colleagues in seconds.
• Is there a clearly understood process established to enable current employees to act on their existing referrals?
  Be sure that your employees have the information they need to accurately communicate possible job postings. Portals and easily accessible online job boards enable people to quickly link to job postings. In addition, it is also important to consider how job referrals are funneled into the organization. If a process is not in place to channel referrals throughout a process, solid referrals can potentially die on the vine or get lost in someone’s inbox. Therefore, before implementing any referral program, define each step of the process and establish controls to ensure that they are consistently followed.
• Have metrics and measures been established to monitor and track the success of employee referrals?
  Establish goals for employee referral programs and targets for retention rates from referrals. These tools will help your organization track successes or failures in the process. Ultimately, an employee referral program must produce results. If after a reasonable amount of time, the program is not producing, quickly evaluate the process and take swift actions to improve it.