Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Out of my ten year career working full-time in corporate America, I earned the “high potential” employee designation in only two of those years.  Moreover, it was the last two years right before I quit my job to become a full-time entrepreneur.  From that point on, this designation became fascinating to me for two reasons:

1. For the first 8 years of my corporate career I didn’t know anything about the designation until about 6 months before I earned it
2. The designation has a ton of perks

Not Knowing That a High Potential Designation Exists

Looking back, I believe I was definitely at a disadvantage in year one through eight not knowing that the designation existed.   This is just something my parents, college professors, friends, siblings, etc. never mentioned to me. My employers never mentioned this designation to me either.  It was just something that wasn’t talked about.

Now I realize that there were college graduates who walked in the door labeled as high potential.  I’m not sure if it was based on the brand name of their college, their GPA, nepotism, or something else.   All I know is that on day one a few people are recognized as “high potential” and everyone else is not.

The “High Potential” Designation has Perks

Getting into the “high potential” club comes with perks that matter.

1. You get to travel to employee sponsored professional development conferences and workshops.
2. Mentors and sponsors guide you, watch over your career, and serve as an invisible hand to lift you up.
3. Diverse peer groups setup for only the high potential employees build your network.
4. You get access to training to develop your domain expertise and help you become a better leader.
5. Opportunities to experience career paths that other people don’t even know exists are readily available.

Bottom line, you get all the advantages in the world over everyone else. Furthermore, the regular people complain about not getting access to opportunities for growth, while at the same time high potential people are drowning in opportunities.

Three considerations If You Don’t Have a High Potential Designation

It’s one thing to not know about the high potential designation, it’s another thing to know and not do anything about it.

My last two years in corporate I was high potential. I was finally in my sweet spot after 8 years of being a consultant.  I was on the right size team, had the perfect role for my skills and experiences, and tons of visibility with the client and internal leadership. In addition, I executed at a high level.

Above all, I wanted more out of my career.  I paid an executive coach to help me develop a plan.  Through that process my coach provided me with tons of secrets to the game I never knew.  This changed everything.  I received  the high potential designation in my next performance evaluation.

So if you don’t have a “high potential” designation in your career as of now, here are four things you need to consider:

1. You may be high potential and not doing high potential work.
2. You may be doing high potential work and not have the designation because you haven’t pushed for it.
3. If you do nothing you will keep getting what you are getting.
4. Nothing is stopping you from seeking out whatever secrets there are in your industry to become high potential.  All you have to do is ask the right mentors the right questions. Then, do the work to open up those doors you didn’t even know existed

Want to go deeper–read this article from Harvard Business Review: Are You a High Potential?