High professionals vs. high potentials: What leaders must know

Imagine that you are a manager of a star employee. You are excited to have your annual review with them this year because you will be delivering a raving review and a sizable merit increase. As you are wrapping up the conversation with what you consider to be an attractive offer to move into a supervisory role, they surprise you with their answer: “No, thank you.”

Your employee elaborates that they are happy to stay in their current role for the foreseeable future. They like being an individual contributor and are thriving in their area of expertise with no desire to manage other employees. They like being what you later learn is called a ‘high professional.’ The problem is you had mistakenly identified them as a high potential employee (HiPo) – someone who has the ability, commitment, and desire to rise and succeed in higher level positions.

You hear the record scratch sound in your head, and your mind starts to race. Where did you miss the signs or cues? You quickly reflect back over your weekly 1:1s and realise that although you talked about how well things have been going, you never addressed the future and their (lack of) desire for a management role. This leaves you with a role to fill with no one in the wings waiting to take it. Now what?

High professionals vs. high potentials

Both high potentials and high impact professionals are important to have in an organisation. However, they are different and need to be supported differently in their careers. Just because an employee doesn’t want to move into a management role doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be developed.

High professionals (HiPros) prefer to stay high performing in their role long-term, but still value learning, developing, and growing. Retaining people who are great at their jobs is important for business continuity. They hold institutional knowledge, provide consistent results, and can train newcomers. For any number of reasons – they prefer being able to work autonomously, don’t want to be bogged down with more meetings, aren’t interested in conducting performance reviews just to name a few I’ve heard – they prefer their individual contributor role and want to maintain that status.

It’s important to make the distinction between HiPos and HiPros before investing time and money into developing a high professional for a leadership role in which they have no interest. This can be achieved simply by having a conversation to check for interest and capability. This is a big reason why managers shouldn’t wait until yearly performance reviews to ask employees about their career path goals.

In fact, it doesn’t need to be a formal discussion but can be casual in nature if that makes the employee more comfortable. The earlier these conversations happen, the better, and they can include questions as simple as, “Where do you see yourself in three years?” or “Are there any other roles at the company you are interested in moving into eventually?”

How to retain high professionals

So, how do you ensure that these high impact professionals are happy in their roles and more likely to stay with the company? It starts with acknowledging that employee work expectations are shifting and while the organisation’s needs for filling roles for succession planning are important, paying attention to preferences of employees who contribute positively to the company in other capacities is also crucial even if high professionals do not aspire to a leadership role. Perhaps there will be a need to create more than one career path for the same role, acknowledging that while some individuals are looking to move through the leadership ranks, there are individuals who prefer to stay in their role.

During check-in conversations that managers are already having, focus on retaining high professionals by keeping a few tips in mind:  

• Discuss the employee’s priorities with regard to work-life balance, culture, and work style to ensure that there is long-term alignment. This is an opportunity to get to know them better and ensure that as their manager you are aware of their key motivators.
• Give them stretch projects that challenge them and minimise the chance of them experiencing boreout at work. As their manager, you may not be able to control every single task that they work on, but you may have more control over the type of assignments that are delegated to an employee you’re looking to retain.
• Ensure high professionals have a say in their development. Whether it’s in the skills they’re wanting to learn or perfect, the courses they’re interested in taking, or a conference they’d like to attend, make it a shared discussion to ensure that it meets their interests and professional goals.
• Explore getting high professional employees involved in a mentoring program. Whether it’s as the mentor to share their knowledge with other up-and-coming high impact professionals or as the mentee to hear the perspective and experience from a seasoned employee. And as is often the case with these initiatives, the knowledge sharing offers benefits to both parties that they may not have realised to the fullest potential had they not participated.

How to develop high professionals

If organisations want to avoid turnover, they need to provide adequate training and development for high professionals in the same way that they prioritise creating promotion opportunities. Pew Research Center found that only 26% of workers surveyed were extremely satisfied with those opportunities internally.

Organisations should empower managers to collect input from their high impact professionals to find out what is important to them in order to tailor their development accordingly. Starting when the employee is hired and revisiting as frequently as necessary, they should continue to check in on career goals and values to set team members up for success. Some questions to consider:

• What are the employee’s career goals?
• Are their goals in alignment with the organisation’s?
• Does the employee display the behaviours aligned with the competencies identified as needed for success in the next role in their career path? If not, what development do they need to get there?
• Are they aware of their current strengths and development areas?

Based on the information collected, managers can direct employees to a variety of options, ranging from coaching to microlearning courses or even attending formal workshops. 

Invest in your high professional talent

While high potentials often get the most attention, don’t underestimate the importance of the high professionals in your organisation. HiPros still provide so much value as they continue to progress in their career in non-leadership roles. Providing high professionals with the tools they need to succeed will demonstrate that you value their contributions to the business and ensure that they are rewarded for their reliability, consistency, and quality performance.

Talogy’s 2025 global research study explores what makes HiPo programmes effective. Drawing on scientific literature, survey data from over 1,000 professionals, and insights from expert consultants, this executive summary highlights four critical components of successful HiPo strategies:

1. Defining high potential: What does ‘high potential’ really mean and how does it differ from high performance?
2. Identifying talent: Who is responsible, what methods are used, and how is HiPo status communicated?
3. Developing and retaining HiPo employees: What works, what doesn’t, and how can organisations keep top talent engaged?
4. Evaluating programme impact: How do organisations measure success and ensure long-term value?