Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders

Preface

Are You Having Leadership Conversations?

Whether you are the high potential who receives the news or the executive who delivers it, everyone feels good when he hears or says, “Congratulations—we have an amazing new assignment for you. It’s an opportunity to confirm that you are a rising star.”

Exciting? Yes, but any new opportunity also entails new risks. Research consistently shows that nearly half of high-potential executives fail to reach their full potential. The fancy name for it is midcareer derailment. Considering that the derailment usually occurs within eighteen months of a major promotion, perhaps you should wait a while before uncorking the champagne. As the high potential who is being promoted or who is promoting others, you ...