can anyone share how you know if you’re a HiPo?
25 replies (most recent on top)
Without any irony, if you have to ask the question about how you know if you’re a HiPo, that automatically means you’re not a HiPo. HiPos, among others, get softball assignments where they can shine bright without doing any actual work. In fact, they are instructed not to waste their time with actual work, because that’s not where the “value” is. For EM management, the value lies in skimming the work of others and regurgitating it to the management in an easy-to-understand form. If you don’t get any of that and instead you’re expected to do real work, then you know.
If you are a supervisor and you are allowed to rank your team high so you don’t have to have any difficult discussions you are a HiPo. The other non HiPo supervisor teams will all be tanked so you don’t have to do anything other than hand out raises. Once you leave your team will be over their salary curve and their rankings will tank. Hey but at least you will be a happy HiPo
So many young employees are strung along hoping they are a HiPo. I’ve seen naive clueless young engineers think they are Hippo because they ranked well.
If the org chart is changed when you have a role to add more people to do the same job and then when you leave it reverts back to fewer people you are a hipo. They make it impossible for the hipo to fail by staffing up when they are in a role. They also often bring a HiPo into a role once success is all but inevitable due to the hard work of a prior employee. Let the Hipo come in and take all the credit for 12 to 18 months then go on to their next promotion.
HiPo = High Potential
Do not confuse with High Performer
They are artificially placed at top of rank group.
One Supervisor chose to campaigned in a ranking meeting for two high performers to be placed over a HiPo that reported to him. This was based on performance but politically unacceptable so that Supervisor was dropped in ranking as a result.
I was once told by my department manager that I was the top performer in my rank group but there were 4 HiPos that had to be place above me for political reasons. He said HiPos must be placed on top so that their Potential can be attained, even if they achieved nothing in the year.
HiPos get moved around a lot.
Get moved out of an assignment if cr-p is forecast to hit fan. Nothing allowed to stick to a HiPo.
Get moved into an assignment if glory is forecast so can take credit and be in photographs.
Did you receive a mid year raise off cycle? Did you receive a raise during COVID? Clues you are a HiPo
If you are asking you aren’t one.
Do your orifices hurt? DWW maybe
OP if you're here you aren't a HiPo. That simple. A HiPo can be easily spotted. They change jobs every two to three years.
If you've got short arms, tiny hands and a big mouth, then you're a HiPo.
High ranking does not make you a HiPo but if you are a HiPo your ranking will be high. If you are an experienced hire your chances or becoming a HiPo are near zero. If you are a HiPo you will only have an assignment for 1 to 2 years before moving to the net job. You will have a formally assigned mentor who is a high CL. Not the cr-ppy mentors the rest of us get. A mentor who gives you articles to read and then talks to you about them. You will be invited to lead step out activities. You will frequently be photographed and shown on social media and investor meetings. Basically if you don't know if you are a HiPo then I can pretty much guarantee you aren't a HiPo.
IF you have been formally assigned a mentor which is VP or SVP in CL, then you know.
BTC SU-KS!!!!
Everyone sing!
If you're hipo and you know it clap your hands
If you're hipo and you know it clap your hands
If you're hipo and you know it then your face will surely show it
If you're hipo and you know it clap your hands
Usually 38+ potential is considered hipo. 38 VP, 40 SVP 42 President
If you spend a lot of time on your hand and knees in front of your boss at the orifice (office), or at LaQuinta enjoying cream cheese & yogurt at the free breakfast buffet.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/so-you-want-to-be-chairman-of-exxon/
You may not know outright early... But there will be signs
See excerpt below
"You are never told straight out that you are on this fast track, but you can tell. You get paid in the upper end of the scale for your grade. You get promoted rapidly. You switch jobs a lot. In the elevator, vice presidents whom you’ve never met greet you by name. For every significant job at Exxon there is a replacement list—a roster of possible replacements for the job’s present holder. Fast-track people, who tend to be on these lists, get the jobs when they open up. People are chosen for the fast track very young—often in their first five or six years with the company, almost never after age 35. That means their intelligence and ability are more important than their specific experience in winning them a rendezvous with destiny. Where management chooses to steer the fast-track people shows what experience it thinks its top executives need to have, and, by extension, what it considers most important to the continued prosperity of the company
These days, you know you are HiPo if the company wants to keep you even though they can hire 6 like you at BTC for the same cost.
Since no one is choosing to be serious here. Let me answer this one for you here bud. I have worked at Exxon for about 27 years now (across Upstream and now LCS), and let me tell you, during this time i have both been a HiPo and also selected sharp folks under me to be HiPo.
You will typically see that you are a HiPo right about at the 5-7 year mark into your service with the company. In my case, i was at CL 24 at the 5 year mark in this company. And i noticed that i had great chemistry with my supervisor but also his manager as well. I noticed that i was given more and more responsibilities and opportunities to present findings to upper management etc etc....... whereas my peers were given more technical work and kept "behind the scenes". I became the face of the team over the next year or so and was subsequently promoted to CL 25.
From CL25 to CL28 took me about 8 years and 4 assignments each about 2 years in length and my old supervisor's manager with whom i had a great relationship with took great interest in helping me shape my career in whatever direction i wanted. I was given supervisory roles and then by CL28 was a Technical Manager. I then crossed into CL29 a year or so later and a year later went into CL30.
At this point i selected a handful of folks whom i believed to be smart/sharp and capable but most importantly folks with whom i felt a connection, i selected them and mentored them the same way i was mentored. I gave them the same opportunities as i was given, i fought like he ll to get them the increase in CL levels early on. Etc etc. I even got one of them on a company sponsored MBA.
Anyways, nobody is going to come up to you and say hey ur a HiPo be happy. Its something that is done very subtly behind the scenes and usually doesnt happen till the 5-7 year mark in a company. Hope this helps !!
If you find yourself selecting La Quinta Inn for your hotel stays
You won’t know for sure but the closest you can get it your ultimate position. >30 is HiPo
The fact that you had to ask is a dead give away that you are not one.
Just ask what your ultimate potential CL is during your performance review
Someone sprinkled gold dust on your shoulder.