Traditional HiPo systems are great at finding high performers. But leadership roles don’t reward performance alone – they punish the wrong traits under pressure.
What goes wrong (fast):
- Performance gets mistaken for potential
- Visibility beats readiness (confidence reads like capability)
- Bias scales through nominations and networks
- Derailment arrives late, after the promotion, when the cost is highest
The issue isn’t judgement. It’s unstructured judgement at scale.
