Written by Alanna Harrington, Managing Research Consultant
Developing high potential talent is just as critical as identifying it, and often just as challenging. Organisations typically rely on methods such as coaching, mentoring, training, providing stretch assignments, and job shadowing. However, our recent global research that gathered insights from high potential employees, their leaders, and HR professionals, revealed that striking the correct balance when it comes to development can be challenging. As one participant shared, “[A] big challenge is balancing their development with their current workload. Finding the right stretch assignments and dedicated mentorship time without overwhelming them or neglecting current needs is tough.”
Some HiPo employees in our study revealed they did not feel much had changed after being identified as high potential, leading them to feel bored, dissatisfied, and underchallenged. This phenomenon is called boreout. In contrast, others reported feeling overwhelmed and stressed by their new responsibilities and the expectations that come with their high potential status, experiencing the much more commonly known phenomenon of burnout. To put it simply, burnout happens when you are overstimulated, and boreout happens when you are understimulated.
Taking a measured approach to development is crucial to ensure high potential talent stays with the organisation and doesn’t leave due to feeling overwhelmed or understimulated. Here are some key ways to calibrate your high potential development strategies.
4 tips to avoid HiPo burnout and boreout at work
1. Set clear expectations – and keep checking in
A common thread throughout our research was the importance of managing expectations for high potential employees. This should include communicating clearly about what will happen after HiPo talent has been identified in terms of learning and development, career progression, and workload. If employees know what to expect from the process, it is less likely that they will feel disappointed or resentful. A key part of this is to ensure upfront that you can meet their expectations – don’t promise something and then underdeliver.
Make regular check-ins a priority to ensure these expectations are being met. What makes it even more difficult to find the right balance in HiPo development is that the signs of burnout and boreout look very similar: depression, feeling disconnected from your work, exhaustion, reduced performance, and feelings of cynicism and negativity. Ensure that managers and mentors are connecting with HiPo employees at regular intervals and build employee satisfaction with the process into your evaluation approach.
2. Equip managers to nurture high potential talent
Leaders and HR alike reported that managerial support – or lack thereof – is a key challenge when it comes to developing HiPo employees. Both expressed doubts that managers are equipped with the requisite skill set and resources to develop their high potential talent successfully, specifically when it came to balancing their current workload with growth opportunities.
Empirical research has demonstrated a link between leadership style and employee burnout. Leaders who can communicate clearly, actively listen, demonstrate empathy, and accept suggestions for improvement are less likely to have burnt-out employees. The factors influencing boreout at work are much less researched, but it makes sense that leaders would play a critical role in ensuring their employees don’t reach this stage of disengagement.
Proactively tackle this issue by providing training upfront for managers. This should focus on managing expectations, recognising signs of boreout and burnout, and navigating conversations with direct reports about their experiences with the HiPo process, workload, and progression towards their goals.
3. Tailor development to aspirations, not assumptions
Organisations often take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to high potential, but not all talented employees have the same career aspirations. Some may desire to progress through the leadership journey and its various levels, but others may wish to contribute to the organisation in another way – perhaps by managing key projects or providing a distinct set of skills and expertise. If the individual feels the development opportunities they are being given don’t align with their own aspirations, this creates a risk of either burnout or boreout at work. They may feel overwhelmed by having extra on their plate that they don’t even want to do or feel disengaged from the learning and work opportunities presented to them.
Organisations should consider individual aspirations at the potential identification stage to ensure that the employees who are designated HiPo have aspirations that align with the organisation’s goals. However, it shouldn’t stop there. Ensure that you’re taking their specific goals and ambitions into account when defining an approach to developing high potential talent. Ensure that the development plans you create for HiPo talent are targeted towards the positions they aim to grow into and allow them to provide input on how they can achieve their career goals. If they are receiving coaching or mentoring, this should be a focus of at least some of the conversations with their coach/mentor.
4. Empower high potential talent to own their growth
A strategy that can help bring more alignment between development and career aspirations is to provide employees with some autonomy in directing their own development path. While there may be some core skills your organisation requires HiPo talent to excel in, when possible, give them some scope to explore areas of particular interest to them.
One way to do this could be to provide a set amount of budget for learning and development that they can utilise at their discretion. After all, high potential employees are typically expected to demonstrate initiative, understand how they can contribute to business needs, and drive organisational success. Give them the chance to put this into practice by identifying learning opportunities that can benefit both their career goals and the organisation. Allow them to demonstrate the tenacity and motivation to complete optional learning. This will solidify their HiPo status and further prepare them for roles with greater responsibility and complexity in the future.
Overcoming burnout and boreout in HiPo development
It’s important to build these recommendations directly into your high potential strategy to ensure that your employees don’t experience burnout or boreout at work. Clear communication, tailored growth paths, and strong managerial support are essential to ensure these key members of your workforce remain with the organisation.
Remember, individuals differ in their expectations, aspirations, and capacity to take on additional responsibilities. What works for one employee will not necessarily work for all, so the most important aspect is to establish open communication channels where employees have the psychological safety to speak up if they begin to feel overstretched or underchallenged. Empowering high potentials to co-create their development journey can boost engagement and retention, allowing you to maintain a strong pipeline of talent which is critical for long-term organisational success.
About the author: Alanna Harrington, M.S. is an Industrial Organisational Psychologist with eight years of experience developing innovative psychometric assessments for selection and development. She is the creator and product lead of Talogy’s values assessment, Capture, winner of a Brandon Hall silver medal for Best Advance in Unique Talent Management Technology.
