The headline in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month blared “Employees with ‘High Potential’ Need to Know.”
There’s just one problem. If you want to screw up talent, tell them they’ve got high potential – shorthand for they’ve been tapped and they’re great.
Why?
Research (Carol Dweck) shows that labeling folks doesn’t work to improve performance. In fact, labeling folks (“great,” “high-potential,” etc.… Read the rest