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Identifying Leadership Potential
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
—Albert Einstein
In athletic circles, the former Soviet Union was famous for its well-honed practice of identifying high-potential athletes at an early age, far earlier than most other countries. That was one of the reasons the former superpower consistently dominated the Olympic medal podium. A more recent, and powerful, example of identifying high-potential athletes occurred in Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Canadian government put in place years before the Vancouver Olympics a program called Own the Podium, in which young high-potential athletes were rigorously identified and trained extensively for the 2010 Games. Result: the best performance ...
