Harnessing data to find tomorrow's leaders

OBTAINING a promotion is often cause for celebration for any employee as it's a sign of recognition for their performance and dedication. Promotions are often made based on subjective judgement, as the individual's manager makes recommendations on who has done well in their role, and who deserves a promotion. As a result, we might unintentionally promote a good performer in their current role or level, when the next level actually requires different competencies, attributes, knowledge and experience to be successful.

Recent statistics have revealed that 40 per cent of newly promoted managers and executives fail within 18 months of starting new jobs. This is particularly true for leaders who are transitioning from operational and functional mandates to strategic executive leadership - the emerging executives. These are your next-generation leaders who take on roles that have an organisational mandate with a wider span of influence, leaders who could potentially be groomed as C-suite successors.

The speed of business is driving companies to move employees with less tenured experience into executive roles faster than ever, and the "wrong" promotion can be extremely costly and risky - especially when this is a result of only performance-based promotions, which can be prone to judgement bias. Avoiding and mitigating such risks require an objective and scientific talent evaluation process that considers all the data, rather than limited samples, to provide a holistic picture of the individual's capabilities.