Five Steps to a Better High Potential Program

Half of your managers are harboring an intent to leave your organization.¹ They’re stressed, angry, and disengaged. And high potentials, specifically? They're three to five times more likely to leave within the next year without a sense of purpose, trust, growth, and advancement.² What would help them stay? Development. A better, more comprehensive high-potential program that truly meets the needs of high-potential employees is one of the best ways to help leaders, teams, and organizations flourish.

Identifying and developing future leaders is crucial for organizational success, yet many high-potential programs fall short. Without established best practices for a high-potential program, talent management processes can be inefficient, biased, and unsuccessful. Proof of this lies in the fact that global manager engagement is on a steep decline (from 30% to 27% in 2024, a greater drop than any other category of worker).¹ Calling this a leadership crisis isn’t an exaggeration.

Organizations can engage leaders and ensure a competitive advantage with a better high-potential program. Here are the five steps: (1) define potential, (2) identify objectively, (3) assess personality, (4) measure engagement, and (5) develop strategically.

Define High Potential

One challenge most organizations face in creating a better high potential program is defining potential. “Ask, ‘High potential for what?’” said Trish Kellett, executive advisor of strategic initiatives at Hogan Assessments. “Based on the needs of the job, you might have a different pool of high potentials,” she added, affirming the importance of context. An organization’s culture, strategy, and market will also influence its unique definition of potential.

Furthermore, organizations should consider not only what competencies are necessary for high potentials but also how they are likely to manifest. All leaders face challenges and barriers, but is their response more urgent or resilient? All leaders make plans for the future, but is their vision more conservative or fearless? “It’s not about if they lead but how they lead,” Kellett said.

Identify High Potentials Objectively

At Hogan, we believe objectivity can best be achieved with scientifically validated personality assessments. Traditional methods of identification, such as interviews, are often problematic because they tend to be subjective, influenced by corporate politics, and focused on the wrong criteria. This results in high potentials who may seem leaderlike but lack characteristics essential to success in leadership. The consequence? An estimated two-thirds of leaders fail to be effective.³ The effects of their inadequacy can be devastating to an organization’s productivity, culture, and financial outcomes.

Using objective measures for identification, such as personality data, is a better way to evaluate high-potential candidates. First, it helps limit unconscious bias or discrimination by standardizing selection criteria. Second, it helps ground the identification process in a meaningful definition of leadership: the ability to build and maintain a team that performs well relative to its competition.³ At Hogan, we know that leadership is not about job titles; it’s about followership. A leader can be considered effective only if their team is high-performing.

Assess Personality

Individual differences in personality affect how we pursue the motivations that are universal to all humans: getting along with others in our social groups, getting ahead in the social hierarchy, and finding meaning or purpose in life. Our individual differences also determine how we behave at work. Someone who values experimentation will likely act differently than someone who values structure. This is why we say that personality predicts performance.

The Hogan assessments measure everyday personality strengths, tendencies that can cause career derailment, and the values that motivate behavior. At a high level, the assessments describe different approaches leaders might take to pursuing these universal human motives. Individual assessment results depict the distinct leadership style of each high potential. With accuracy and nuance, they show how a leader relates to themselves and others and their unique way of handling vision and execution.

Our data-driven talent insights help organizations identify high potentials with the personality characteristics essential for success—that is, how effectively they lead teams. The measure of a leader’s success depends on their team’s success.

Measure Engagement

Employee engagement is arguably one of the best indicators of organizational performance. Its absence is certainly costly. A two-point drop in global engagement equals a $438 billion loss in productivity.¹ Plus, for every 10 managers around the world, only two to three are actively engaged.¹ Statistically, your managers aren’t engaged, and your individual contributors aren’t likely to be, either. Remember the two-thirds managerial failure rate? Engagement metrics reflect how employees are treated by their leaders.

Measuring engagement has two dimensions. Leaders themselves should be engaged, and their teams should be engaged. “Your leaders need the energy, passion, and commitment to identify with your organization in their role,” said Erin Lazarus, senior director of business development at Hogan Assessments. “Leaders who feel personally committed are inspirational. Engaged leaders are more likely to bring passion to their work and drive a culture of engagement.” Incidentally, the Hogan assessments measure values, which indicate what motivates candidates to succeed and the position, job, and environment where they will be the most effective.

Develop Strategically

In addition to objectively identifying high potentials, assessing personality provides a strong foundation for developing high potentials too. Behavioral strengths in early career stages can become derailers as leaders advance. For instance, a successful frontline manager with a low-impact social style would need to adjust that approach as a director whose role is likely to involve networking. Personality assessment early in the leadership development process can provide strategic, targeted, and actionable insight into growth areas.

Because leaders accomplish their work through the efforts of their team members, leading others is one of the most important competencies for high potentials. Fortunately, leading others is a skill that can be developed. To lead others well requires a focus on people, resilience, adaptability, drive, and learning agility, Lazarus pointed out. “Can I fail fast, learn, iterate, and try again? Can I learn from others?” she said. “Learning to behave differently to achieve success is very important in high-potential development.”

Then, Repeat the Five Steps

The five steps to a better high-potential program should always be ongoing. “High potential programs shouldn’t be something you plan once or twice a year. Make high potentials part of your regular rhythm,” said Kellett. “Consider the future. Not only the leader may change, but the role and the context may also change,” she said. Given the nonstop transformation in the business world lately, the definition of potential demands constant revision.

A better high-potential program that uses well-validated personality assessments for identification and development helps organizations maintain a competitive advantage. According to Robert Hogan, PhD, founder and president at Hogan Assessments, “Personality and leadership are closely connected—who you are determines how you lead.”³

References

1. Gallup. (2025). State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
2. DDI. (2025). Global Leadership Forecast 2025: Insights and Trends. https://www.ddi.com/research/global-leadership-forecast-2025
3. Hogan, R. (2007). Personality and the Fate of Organizations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.