We’ve seen the difference between
good organizations and great ones.
And the more potential you unleash, the further it
spreads, strengthening teams and rippling through your
entire organization to boost results in every corner.
increase EBIDTA by
as much as 16%
get 2.5x
higher revenues
create 8x
higher engagement
boost performance
by 40% among your teams
add as much as 30%
on your bottom line
To tap into potential and
help everyone thrive, it’s vital to look at how your entire business is connected.
We call it: The Potential Code.
Are your people motivated by your purpose? Does your culture and
structure give them everything they need to hit their own career goals?
Not everyone wants to become a leader. But everyone can play their part
in making yours a leading business.
Based on decades of experience working with the most successful companies in the world, we’ve distilled the six elements leading organizations focus on to find and nurture the potential in their people. These are the qualities we’ve seen on the ground, working inside and alongside many
of the world’s most successful organizations.
By addressing each element, you have a powerful recipe for bringing
out the best in your people and your business.
ready to crack The Potential Code?
And time and again, we’ve seen the same theme: the organizations with the strongest growth
and highest returns are the ones that empower employees to reach their highest potential.
Yet too many businesses only support a select few. By favoring recent high performers
over everyone else, high potential initiatives may inadvertently overlook potential in the rest
of your organization. We know that potential is there—and often hiding in plain sight. If you
tap into it, you can expect to reach new heights of success.
(compared to competitors
who engage their teams less)
As organizational consultants with over 50 years' experience, we know that when people
are empowered and working at their best, teams work at their best too. And when those
teams operate at their peak, their businesses go on to change the world.
At Korn Ferry, the impact we create spans entire organizations, but it always starts
with people. We can help you with these six specific elements of the Potential Code,
or by addressing your broader business challenges.
Your organization is full of potential. We’re here to unleash it.
To unleash potential, you need to recognize the blockers holding people back
Potential focuses on knowing your traits, drivers, and experiences so you can use them to prepare the skills you want to
develop for future roles. We’ve found four specific reasons people don’t always thrive in their roles and teams.
high performance
and high potential aren’t the same
theory only works with practice
people are in the wrong roles to showcase their skills
a bottom-line mentality in leaders lowers intrinsic motivation in teams
Lack of opportunity: high performance and high potential aren’t the same
How well someone performed last year won’t show you if they have the skillset or mindset they need to perform well as your business evolves. Nor will it tell you how well they could perform in a different role. That’s because, despite them overlapping, high performance and high potential aren’t the same, yet many conflate the two.
As a result, organizations focus all their efforts on nurturing the people who’ve already performed well and overlook others who could easily shine if they had the right support.
Even if you’re offering training to all—are you giving everyone an equal chance to apply what they’ve learned? For people to get the most out of learning, we know they need to transfer that theory into the real world and, ideally, their own roles as soon as possible. On average, we need to spend 10,000 hours practicing a new skill for it to stick. If people don’t get the chance to regularly put new skills into practice, there’s a risk all that learning will go to waste.
Learning gets lost: theory only works with practice
If people are in roles that align with their behaviors, skills and motivations, they’ll be more engaged —which automatically increases their chance of success. Matching people to roles matters at every level. Amongst senior teams, we’ve found leaders with a high match for their role, based on their traits and drivers, were 250% more likely to be highly engaged than those with only an average match.
On the flip side, if people are in roles that don’t suit them, it’s less likely they will perform well. Managers will overlook them for the promotions or sideways moves that could match their abilities and motivations more, so their wellbeing suffers.
Poor alignment: people are in the wrong roles to showcase their skills
When leaders put a blinkered focus on the bottom line above supporting their teams, working cultures turn toxic. Without a clear purpose or nurturing leaders, people feel less intrinsically motivated to give extra in their roles—
so they never push the limits of their potential. We’ve found that 60% of employees who exceed performance expectations are motivated by their organization’s overall purpose and vision, compared to 48% who aren’t.
Toxic leadership: a bottom-line mentality in leaders lowers intrinsic motivation in teams
Dive deeper
Leadership:
TO SEE POTENTIAL SPREAD
THROUGH YOUR PEOPLE, TEAMS
AND ENTIRE ORGANIZATION,
ASK THESE QUESTIONS FIRST
Does your organization have a purpose—and have
you communicated it clearly?
Purpose:
Does your culture give teams the space to thrive?
Culture:
Are teams motivated to give their best—how are
you fueling that intrinsic motivation?
Motivation:
Are your teams cohesive—and do your structure and processes make it possible for them to shine?
Teams:
Are your people the perfect match for the roles
they’re in?
Alignment:
high performance
and high potential aren’t the same
theory only works with practice
people are in the wrong roles to showcase their skills
Toxic leadership:
The business benefits of unleashing potential in your people
We’ve spent years surrounding
the simple but Confounding puzzle:
how to help people be their best
Read the report
Download full report
How we can help
The Potential Code
One powerful combination for unleashing potential
Click each element to learn more
Six simple elements
How we can help
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Are your leaders sharing an inspiring vision—or
creating a toxic culture that holds people back?
1
4. How the World's Most Admired are shaping culture
2
5
4
3
4. https://www.kornferry.com/content/dam/kornferry-v2/pdf/institute/kfi-the-secret-sauce-of-team-performance2.pdf
5. https://www.kornferry.com/content/dam/kornferry-v2/pdf/institute/kfi-fit-matters-thought-leadership-final.pdf
1. https://www.kornferry.com/content/dam/kornferry-v2/pdf/institute/kfi-getting-clear-about-why.pdf
2. https://www.kornferry.com/institute/roi-of-hiring-stronger-performers
3. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/featured-topics/organizational-transformation/how-the-worlds-most-admired-are-shaping-culture?utm_source=news&utm_medium=press-release&utm_campaign=23-03-gbl-wmacculture&utm_content=infographic
5. Fit Matters Thought Leadership
2. The ROI of Hiring Stronger Performers
1. Getting Clear About Why
3. The Secret Sauce of Team Performance
Lack of opportunity:
Lack of opportunity:
Learning gets lost:
Learning gets lost:
Poor alignment:
Poor alignment:
Toxic leadership:
a bottom-line mentality in leaders lowers intrinsic motivation in teams
Every person, at every level in your organization has potential: the ability
to go beyond the role you hired them
for, to rise to new challenges and
achieve more than you (or they) imagined. Do you know how to
unleash it?