High-potential employees can be harder to identify -- especially considering that performance and potential are not mutually exclusive. So what do employers need to look for? To easily spot high-potential employees within an organization, here are four common traits of high potentials vs. high performers:

1. Proactive vs. reactive

One of the most obvious traits of an employee with the potential to succeed in a leadership role is whether they take on a proactive or reactive approach to problem-solving.

A proactive employee plans for the future -- they don’t wait until a crisis occurs to react. Reactive employees, on the other hand, wait until the very moment a problem arises to come up with a solution (hence being referred to as firefighters). While both approaches aim to solve the problem, the proactive approach is more effective and telling of future leaders.

Freedom from firefighting gives employees and leaders more time to implement the prepared strategies and processes to address the issue.

2. Leaders vs. followers

Not every employee strives to climb the corporate ladder. Some employees are perfectly happy in their current positions and have zero desire to lead and manage a team -- and that’s fine. After all, behind every successful leader is a team of high performers. Instead of looking for obvious candidates for leadership based on performance alone, take individual contributions and personality traits into consideration.

High-potential employees are often characterized by their ability to go above and beyond the call of duty. They don’t leave the office the second the clock strikes five. They don’t focus on me, myself and I, but on the team as a whole. They do look for opportunities to contribute their skills and demonstrate their leadership abilities.