Leadership potential is a springboard
It’s all about matching your strengths to the task
In my experience, organizations discuss leadership potential when they aim to decide which 2–5% of people should become their future leaders. The 2–5% is called “High Potentials” (“HiPos”), groomed by the organization for leadership.
HiPos receive challenging assignments, rotations, and management opportunities that others do not. All doors are open for HiPos as they are the favourites. They jump between organizational levels and between organizations fast.
The selection process varies among organizations. While some organizations have a robust framework that defines leadership potential, others do not. The former model often overcomplicates things, standardizing between individuals too much to the point when very similar people get promoted. The letter asks leaders to use their gut instinct to make a decision, introducing a high degree of bias into the decision.
While both approaches try to achieve the same task, organizations can benefit from a more targeted definition of leadership potential. Focusing on potential will allow for an emergence of the leaders an organization needs.
What are the components of leadership potential?
I define leadership potential as follows:
Leadership potential is a set of characteristics that predispose people for leadership.
These characteristics include personality, cognitive ability, and motivation. They are inherent characteristics or nurtured over a long time. You cannot merely get these characteristics by attending a course or certification.
This is the exact reason why I do not include experience as one of the characteristics of leaders.
Instead, I treat the experience as a precondition or a requirement. In this sense, a person needs to have experience before consideration, like is the case with any job posting — it is a pre-qualification for leadership roles.
Leadership potential serves as the base from which one grows as a leader. Thus, it does not discriminate between people who have some characteristics versus others. Leadership potential is the many springboards that an individual can use to jump to leadership. It allows the person to jump higher and faster. That is if one were to choose the right springboard.
Changing your thinking about potential
At this point, you may be wondering what precisely those characteristics he is talking about are. This is a good question, but not the main question you should be asking.
Instead of thinking about what characteristics are “required” in leadership roles, ask the right question:
Potential for what?
Leadership demands determine if someone has the potential to be a leader. Therefore, different leadership positions need different leadership potentials.
Indeed, for a leader focused on disrupting the market, a change mindset is essential. But, for a leader navigating complexity, intellect might be the critical piece. The organizational challenges should determine potential.
Thus, leadership potential is only as good as the challenges that it helps address.
When personal characteristic does not meet the demands of the position, the person is not seen as having leadership potential. When it does, the people will know the person as a leader. It’s that simple. Therefore, building a leadership profile against current demands is critical to find those HiPos.
Many frameworks define leadership characteristics out there. They outline the universe of things to look for when thinking about leadership potential.
For example, Deloitte’s framework, which I am most familiar with, outlines four types of potential — change, intellectual, people, and motivational.
Change potential looks at how agile and innovative the person is. Intellectual potential focuses on how the person deals with complexity. The people potential is all about interactions with others through influence and empathy. Finally, motivational potential looks at a person’s drive.
When evaluating potential, these dimensions are aligned for each leadership position under consideration. As such, these dimensions define what a person needs to navigate challenges in a new role successfully.
From years ago, I remember one assessment using the above framework exceptionally well. I was assessing an emerging leader in an international consulting organization. She wanted to know whether she was ready to move on to the next step at the firm, focusing on finding the match between what is expected in the consulting business for development.
In speaking with the candidate, I observed that she was firm in people potential. Well-spoken and diligent networker, she served as a connector within the firm. Her empathy and ability to step in other people’s shoes made her an influential advisor to her clients. The candidate used her healthy people potential to close any other gaps that existed. She brought in the best people from her network to solve the problems that she could not answer. Furthermore, her people potential became her driver as she enjoyed a personal connection. I remember thinking that she would be an excellent relationship leader. In private, I suggested for her to continue double down on her people potential. It got her there, and it could get her even further.
What this example teaches us is that there are different ways to think about the potential and that the match between personal strengths and the roles is likely more critical than a sheer aggregation of unfocused advantages.
Regardless of the framework, I bet that the conclusion for the candidate would be the same. This happens because when the personal characteristic matches the demand, the person truly has the potential to navigate the complexity that they inevitably will face in the next role. The opposite is true when there is a mismatch, and the person falls out of their depth.
Having the right fit of strengths at the right time is what leadership potential is all about.
How to align strengths to leadership positions
One must understand how their strengths fit the position to be a good leader and use them. To do so, one must know both the demands of the role as well as themselves. The former requires analysis and business acumen. The latter involves self-awareness and the ability to look at oneself with an open mind.
Here are three ways that can help you identify your strengths:
- Set up meetings focused on feedback on a regular cadence. Work with your manager or mentor to help you identify your strengths and how to deploy them best. Focus the discussion also on closing the gaps and your development more generally. A monthly conversation can take you very far.
- Go through an assessment. Try the evaluation of personalities like NEO-PI or a free version IPIP. Clifton Strengths is another assessment you might want to consider. There are plenty of instruments out there, and they are fun to explore. But, don’t try MBTI — it is not valid or reliable, despite being “fun.”
- Do a 360 feedback. If you have a chance, take part in the 360 feedback survey with your colleagues. You will learn tons. Both things you thought you knew and something that people see in you and you might not. This includes what we call hidden superstrengths and blindspots. Thank your team for taking some time to share their feedback with you.
In sum, self-awareness is essential for knowing your leadership potential. It will help with knowing how to fit your strengths to the role.
