Why do many organisations struggle to identify their high-potential experts? (and what to do about it)
The Blind Spot in How We Define Expertise
One thing we often see inside technical organisations: a long-serving employee is automatically treated as an “expert” simply because they’ve been around the longest. Or worse still, the person with the most years of experience gets promoted to manager.
Unfortunately, neither tenure nor credentials reliably predicts potential.
And in a world of ageing workforces, restless generations, growing capability gaps, and AI-fueled disruption, organisations can’t afford to get this wrong. Misidentifying who the real experts are who have the most potential leads to poor technical decisions, poor solutions, and the silent erosion of critical knowledge.
So how should organisations really identify and nurture expert talent?
That’s where the Pentapod Principle offers a smarter way forward. But first, a bit of background.
What’s Really Going On?
Many organisations use the same processes to identify both high-potential leaders and experts, like the 9-box grid, and use selection criteria that are a poor indicator of potential:
- Time in role: “They’ve been doing this for 10+ years, they must be an expert.”
- Job title or certification: “They’re a senior engineer, so they must know best.”
- Managerial nominations: Based more on visibility or relationship than actual expertise.
- Assumptions of binary labels: Someone is either an “expert” or not, with no recognition of skill development stages.
These methods ignore a key reality: true expertise is nuanced, multidimensional, and difficult to observe directly.
The risk? We end up putting the wrong people in critical roles, overlooking hidden talent, and losing vital organisational knowledge during retirements or restructures.
The Cost of Inaction
If we keep misidentifying or undervaluing our internal experts, the consequences add up:
- High-impact knowledge walks out the door during retirement or restructuring—with no backup.
- Rising talent gets frustrated, unable to see clear paths to growth or recognition.
- Critical systems fail because the right people weren’t involved in their design or review.
- Change initiatives struggle without embedded experts guiding decisions from the inside.
A Better Way: The Pentapod Principle
Developed by expertise researcher Dr. Robert Hoffman, the Pentapod Principle is a practical, research-backed framework for identifying experts—without relying on time-in-role or job title.
It recommends using at least three of five complementary assessment methods to validate expert status.
The Five Methods of the Pentapod Principle
1. Career Experience Interviews
Structured interviews to explore the depth, breadth, and relevance of someone’s real application of their expertise vs the number of hours on the job.
2. Professional Achievements & Credentials
Formal qualifications plus concrete contributions—patents, papers, systems designed, outcomes achieved.
3. Performance Assessments
Evaluations or demonstrations of expertise applied against actual complex problems or opportunities that are unique compared to BAU.
4. Expert Network Analysis
Often, the best evaluators of expertise are other experts. Incorporate peer nominations and robust feedback tools to reveal who others trust and consult.
5. Cognitive Task Analysis
The best experts can clearly explain their complex problem-solving techniques to non-experts.
Using three or more of these creates a multi-dimensional, defensible view of who your real experts are.
What Can Leaders and HR Do Differently?
Here are five practical ways senior leaders and HR/L&D professionals can apply the Pentapod Principle inside their organisations:
1. Stop Using Tenure as a Shortcut
Years of service ≠ expertise. Challenge assumptions based on tenure alone.
- Audit your current SME nomination process.
- Educate managers and HR teams on the limitations of “time-in-role” proxies.
2. Use at Least Three Validation Methods
Formalise the Pentapod Principle into your systems and talent processes.
- Integrate Expert Network Analysis into expert nomination or mentoring programs.
- Pair task-based assessments with structured experience interviews.
- Build “Pentapod Snapshots” (Success Profiles) for critical roles or projects.
3. Capture Expertise Before It’s Lost
The wave of retirements is already underway in many sectors. In our experience, late-career experts are often inspired to develop others.
- Prioritise knowledge transfer with late-career experts or high-risk SMEs.
- Create shadowing opportunities for rising talent to absorb tacit knowledge.
- Research and experience prove mentoring is a powerful development method for younger experts in particular.
4. Identify and Protect Your Most Critical Experts
These are your unicorns: experts with not just deep technical knowledge, but also highly skilled in building relationships, collaboration, and know how things get done in your organisation.
- Use peer nominations, feedback, and performance indicators to find them.
- Ringfence critical experts during restructures.
- Recognise their expertise by creating capacity for them to mentor and coach other experts.
5. Replace Binary Labels with Developmental Tiers
Expertise exists on a spectrum: from specialist to master.
- Use tiered capability and career models instead of “expert/generalist” labels.
- Create clear growth pathways to retain and develop rising technical talent.
Tools to Help
Expertunity’s Expertship360 assessment integrates key Pentapod principles, combining peer feedback, self-reflection, and behaviourally anchored insights to validate and develop SME capability.
Identifying high-potential experts Watch our WEBINAR and access resources: How to identify and nurture high-potential technical experts
Mastering Expertship Mastering Expertship is our flagship professional growth program for top technical subject matter experts. Almost half of our participants have ten years or more experience in their field.
Summary & Call to Action
If your organisation is still using “10 years in role” as a baseline for expertise, it’s time to upgrade. The Pentapod Principle gives leaders a more accurate, credible, and effective way to identify and grow real experts.
The good news is you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. With the right combination of methods—and support—you can build a resilient expert workforce that delivers long-term value.
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