Recently, I went to the Performance Conference in Chicago, where I had many interesting discussions regarding HIPO’s. In HR slang HIPO’s are defined as an organization’s high performers. But as I delivered a presentation with my colleague Sue Bond from Halogen Software, it became crystal clear that high performers and high potentials are two very different types of employees. I am a fan of segmenting employee populations just like we do consumers as I think you can really gain insights on employee behavior and employee needs by analyzing segments versus all employees.

So what about high performers and high potentials? According to me, (for what it’s worth) a high performer has a track record of delivering results to the organization. A high potential has the ABILITY to deliver results (at a future date) to the organization minus the track record. The high potential just needs to gain more experience and possibly skills to become a high performer. So, how do we move a high potential to a high performer? Good question. I think this is both an art and a science as the tipping point, is motivation. Motivation is a tricky thing as it has many drivers. In my experience you can move a potential to a performer in the following ways: 1) Make sure the potential employee has a clear set of expectations for his current role.

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