Some companies are getting serious about growing their own leaders; however, they’re simply not very good at it. One of the primary reasons is that corporate America continues to hire on credentials, rather than for fit. Way back in 1980, Herbert and Jeanne Greenberg reported on job matching in the Harvard Business Review, “it’s not experience, or college degrees, or other accepted factors…it hinges on fit of the job.” Yes, a job might require a college degree, but I had a couple of roommates in college I’m not sure anyone would want to hire! Companies do not fully understand who their people are. Certainly not, when they are hired, but even after someone’s been in the company for a few years, there’s a breakdown in evaluation. Speaking of which, most performance evaluations are weak and do not provide enough data to support selecting someone for a management position. At the risk of oversimplifying the difficulties associated with identifying and developing leaders, I’d like to give you five areas to consider when attempting to, do so. Hire for potential. Define the role, well. Interview well. And, use quality employment assessments. Employment assessments are now better than ever and can measure the innate characteristics that are critical for success in a management role. Measure it and you can manage it! Even if someone is fresh out of college or trade school, you can get an excellent idea whether or not they are capable of a management role. Are they decisive? Do they make fact-based decisions or do they tend to wing-it? What about their energy level? Every top performing manager we’ve worked with has high energy. Do they like administrative work, or do they prefer creative? Develop leadership fundamentals early on. You’ve probably heard of GE University. GE gets it. Toyota gets it as well. High potential types will have in them a willingness to learn. A learning organization is a good thing, so get an organized program in place that teaches the fundamentals ― the blocking and tackling of leadership. When it comes time for a youngsters’ first management role, she’ll be ready. Build a career path that spans across the enterprise. Guess what? Today’s college grads are different then when you and I got out of school. According to Neil Cassie, of the Cassie Partnership, the Millennial Generation is not looking for a career path ― they are looking for a life-path. How many companies do you know who are prepared for that? But, let’s focus on the career path. The Millennial’s ideals are a great match for building tomorrow’s leaders, because one of the best things you can do for the high potential types, is to give them experience in many divisions within your organization. Let them spend time in a sales role, financial role, distribution role, operations and yes, even in HR. Out-of-the-box compensation. High potentials are highly sought after; therefore, recognition and out-of-the-box compensation is critical to retention. Throw away your HR’s cookie-cutter comp plan. Get to know that high potential better than he knows himself, that way, you’ll always be prepared to do what it takes to keep him. Executive mentoring. Once you’ve identified and begun developing tomorrow’s leaders, hook them up with a senior executive whose responsibilities span the enterprise. Don’t leave them in the hands of a divisional leader ― they’ll be selfish with that resource. For a young person, having some modicum of access to your company’s top leaders, is huge! It is an opportunity for your company to mold and shape, tomorrow’s leader.