Everyone’s calling someone a ‘high potential’. We needed a system.
OfExperiences
Career and Leadership Transition Experts that enable you to support your employees through career and life transitions
The talent team at a global Pharma company came to us with a deceptively simple problem -
“As the Indian arm of an international company, we’ve been asked to standardise our succession pipeline. But every business head has their own definition of what ‘potential’ means — and everyone thinks their team is full of HiPos.”
The following is a breakdown of how we addressed this challenge.
In our initial scoping, which included conversations with the Talent team and FGDs with Business leaders, a few things became apparent:
The term "HiPo" was being used loosely — based on visibility, tenure, and loyalty.
There was no consistent definition of leadership potential across functions.
Talent decisions felt arbitrary and political, not data-driven.
High performers were getting promoted for delivery, and weren’t even being assessed for readiness.
Each business function assumed their role requirements were unique and they couldn’t assess their employees on a standardised scale.
We introduced a structured HiPo Identification Assessment Centre that uses a 4-factor model to assess potential, and not just performance. We call the framework - PACE.
Through a 3 month duration, we:
Designed a custom behavioural assessment centre using role-agnostic scenarios
Used manager calibration workshops to align definitions of potential
Embedded feedback loops into IDPs, so results didn’t just sit in reports
Created a HiPo heatmap across business units for leadership succession planning
Talent reviews became more structured and evidence-based
Managers had a shared language to talk about readiness and potential
Several unexpected HiPos were surfaced from under-represented teams
Succession pipelines were built with diverse, validated talent pools
Potential is not a feeling — it’s a data-backed metric.
By aligning what “high potential” means, we helped our client take the politics out of promotion and build a future-ready leadership bench.
Do you have any questions on identifying HiPos in your organisation? Reach out at dipti@ofexperiences.com