Most of us have encountered an ineffective leader at one time or another. The common cause? The personality characteristics and behaviors used to identify high potentials are not always what lead to effective performance among leaders. This gap is where most high-potential programs fail.
Conscientiousness, execution focus, ambition, and resilience drive early-career success, making high performers seem “leaderlike.” But the most senior levels of leadership demand something different: strategic thinking, delegation, building high-performing teams, and the ability to lead at a scope in which those early-career strengths can become liabilities.
“High potentials think more of the same will produce results,” said Christopher Duffy, managing partner at Hogan Assessments. “Strategic self-awareness is absolutely critical for individuals to make that bridge to doing things in a different manner.”
Strategic self-awareness isn’t just self-knowledge. It’s a form of self-management that involves knowing how to amplify or downplay certain skills based on context, and it requires deliberate high-potential development efforts.
This means starting with an honest picture of who someone actually is, not just what they’ve achieved.
Know who you’re developing
Scientifically valid personality assessments are the most reliable foundation for high-potential development because they reveal what performance metrics can’t. How does a high potential behave when they’re at their best? What motivates them to succeed, and what kind of organizational culture will they create? And how do they behave during times of stress or pressure?
Allan Church, cofounder and managing partner at Maestro Consulting and former SVP of global talent management at PepsiCo, found that integrating Hogan assessments with 360-degree feedback transformed the quality of development conversations. Participants reported their experience was 85 percent better than most others they had encountered. “While each Hogan personality assessment provides unique and important information, the power in understanding the relationships across the tools drives the messages home,” he said.
Personality data also protect against two common errors in identifying potential: overlooking strong candidates who don’t self-promote and advancing charismatic candidates who lack the leadership skills to succeed in strategic roles. “If you can put the assessment as part of the identification process at the front end, it can be a fantastic way to make sure that you’re not missing something,” Duffy said.
Develop for the destination, not the current role
As leaders advance, ambition, conscientiousness, and performance outcomes still matter, of course, but certain skill gaps can quietly undermine someone who might otherwise seem like a sure bet. Interpersonal skills, in particular, become more important as a leader rises through the ranks. Leaders must earn trust from their teams, inspire people, and encourage cooperation while driving results. They must also model diplomacy while navigating socially complex situations.
This is where stretch assignments become essential. Crossing business sectors, leading in unfamiliar geographies, or navigating a cross-functional role creates the kind of pressure that reveals whether a high potential is truly ready for the demands of leadership.
“By definition, a stretch assignment should give you stress,” said Church. Personality feedback helps people understand their tendencies under stress before they’re in the middle of it.
The goal isn’t to convert every high potential into something they’re not. A high potential with lower social energy can still build a reputation as a connected leader by being intentional about visibility, cross-departmental relationships, and how they solicit and act on feedback.
Development creates awareness of what effective leadership looks like at the next level, and it provides high potentials with a path to the strategic self-awareness that can take them there.
Make it a program, not an event
“The most effective component of the high-potential program is making sure we have a clear plan for what to do next with these individuals and really help them prepare for that destination role,” Duffy said. He encourages organizations to think along a three- to five-year horizon, with a transparent path for advancement that reduces turnover at senior levels.
Ongoing coaching is central to that plan. Coaching helps high potentials examine what has worked in the past and think differently about what leadership requires going forward. Peer cohorts can reinforce that shift, replacing a competitive dynamic with mutual investment in each other’s development.
The organizations that develop high potentials most effectively share one orientation: they treat the program as preparation for a future role, not recognition for past performance. That distinction changes everything about what gets measured, what gets coached, and what gets rewarded.