3 tips for evaluating managerial potential

Becoming a manager is very often synonymous with promotion for a reliable and efficient collaborator within his department. However, while the evolution seems logical, the function of manager is nonetheless a profession in its own right, not corresponding to all profiles. Indeed, the best managers are not necessarily the best operational employees.

This is because the skills required are different. For the manager, it will be more about a person's ability to take on leadership responsibilities and manage a team successfully.

The transition will be accentuated around the rise of behavioral and relational skills, to the detriment of technical skills.

Finding the right person to be a manager is a crucial issue.

It should therefore be remembered that promoting a person who excels in their current missions can be a risk. You will be depriving your business of a competent technician. Moreover, there is no assurance that he will make a good manager. It is therefore essential to detect them in order to make a choice concerning the selection of your team leaders.

Therefore, to avoid recruitment or internal mobility errors, it is necessary to ask ourselves about: How to assess managerial potential?

To achieve this, we established a strategy using 3 tips to allow you to structure your approach and identify your leaders calmly.

1 - Prerequisites

First and foremost, three prerequisites must be identified to assess the managerial potential of an employee. Let's deal with them now:

1.1 - Motivation

The first key element is motivation. Indeed, a motivated employee will be more likely to take responsibility and to invest in their role. This can be revealed by a positive attitude, a desire to take on challenges and especially an appetite for a management-related position. If you want to know more, we have an article made for you: 3 tips for evaluating a candidate's motivation.

1.2 - Personality

Next comes personality. A manager should be able to communicate effectively, motivate his team, and resolve conflicts. That's why it's important to prioritize behavioral skills.

1.3 - Past experience

Finally, the last prerequisite to take into consideration is past experience. Indeed, a candidate who has already been in a management situation will be able to provide you with guarantees. Conversely, if this has never been the case, a profile may well have acquired skills in another job or in their personal life.

These 3 elements can really play on the candidate's potential.

2 - The main soft skills

For a managerial position, it is important to focus your assessment of potential on Soft Skills (or behavioral skills). Indeed, managerial potential is largely based on them.

To enlighten you, we interviewed more than 180 recruiters and HR specialists in our annual soft skills barometer. Here are the 3 key skills that we have targeted for managers:

2.1 - Adaptability

The first key skill for managers, adaptability is the soft skills preferred by managers (Source : IFOP). It is an ability to be able to face different challenges and situations in a professional environment. An excellent manager will then be able to make informed decisions despite the changing circumstances of the various projects.

2.2 - Problem solving

Within a company, the job of a manager may consist in identifying and implementing solutions to certain obstacles or conflicts that arise. Problem solving is then another crucial skill for this position. Thanks to it, the manager will be able to more easily rebounding methodically, a key skill for a reassured and structured team.

2.3 - Stress management

It's about the ability to maintain self-control in the face of unexpected situations. A person with it will be more likely to remain calm in the face of multiple stressful events. This will then allow him to perform under pressure even in the most tense situations. A must for managers and the pressure that comes with their responsibilities.

Representation of the 3 essential skills for a manager

3 - Analyzing the potential

To properly project the potential of a management candidate, it is interesting to do a study of his past performances and to carry out an evaluation of his skills (Assessment).

If an employee has already been in a management situation in his previous roles, it is necessary to know if they were good to determine his potential as a manager. THEAssessment For its part, it will make it possible to carry out a reliable inventory of the candidate's skills at the moment.

3.1 - Annual interview for an employee

All companies have the obligation to organize an annual interview with each professional who composed them. These moments are particularly interesting in the context of internal mobility.

Indeed, during these events, the human resources department will be able to ask targeted questions about the skills, projects, results and ambition of the employee. These discussions can help define an individual's level of motivation and managerial potential.

3.2 - Taking references for a candidate

Conversely, when it comes to recruitment, taking references is a good way to obtain feedback on a candidate's career path. Indeed, when references are taken correctly (legal obligation to ask the candidate for them), it makes it possible to obtain an external opinion based on facts.

This information will enhance your thinking about its managerial potential. However, be careful not to multiply biases with non-objective summaries.

3.3 - The Assessment

While the 2 previous points are important, another device makes it possible to complete the analysis while reducing the impact of cognitive biases:Assessment Center (digital or face-to-face). Intended for recruitment as well as for internal mobility, assessment is an evaluation process with various supports such as psychometric tests or simulation exercises.

The objective of this method is to detect an individual's skills, personalities and abilities in order to obtain quality measures: accurate and objective.

Thanks to the data collected, the tool produces a report to enlighten you on the managerial potential of a talent. It is also a great ally in defining your training plans. For example, you could detect gaps in certain skills that you have identified as essential.

To ensure the development of these, it will then be possible to offer a support plan with various professional training courses.

Representation of the 3 different ways of evaluating performance

Discover our solution specialized in the assessment of managerial potential

After several years of R&D with researchers in Psychology and Neuroscience, we imagined Yuzu : one New Generation Assessment Center, specialized in the assessment of soft skills (the famous soft skills).

With Yuzu, talents are immersed in scenarios developed with the latest technologies of the Video game.

The evaluations, on the other hand, are accessible to all profiles thanks to simplified orders and cloud technologies (all you need is a computer and an internet connection to be evaluated).

Evaluate managerial potential with Yuzu here!

The advantages of our solution:

• One candidate experience exceptional for boosting your employer brand;
• A solution accessible to all to ensure equal opportunities;
• A decision support tool to make the best decisions about your future employees

Whether it's for your recruitment process Or of internal mobility, we are transforming the assessment of Soft Skills In a moment Loud and playful.

To remember

Assessing managerial potential is a complex process that requires a certain methodology. It is therefore essential to establish a comprehensive and thorough diagnosis to get a clear and accurate picture of a candidate.

However, these evaluations are not intended to be final. Les management skills are hard work and can be acquired over time, as is the motivation to manage a team.

Although delicate, these different steps will allow you to inform your decision-making for structuring the management of your organization.

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