What do high-potential employees describe as their core challenges? And what areas of development must they address as they climb the corporate ladder?

To better understand these challenges, we examined more than 3,000 applications and sponsor statements for those who were admitted to Harvard Business School’s flagship High Potentials Leadership Program (HPLP) from 2003 through 2021. The admissions team asked applicants to identify their primary leadership challenge, their objectives for attending the program, and their leadership style and approach. Sponsors were asked to identify the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses, outline their reasons for the nomination, and articulate their goals for the applicant.

Our analysis shed light on the ways in which companies assess the strengths and developmental needs of their executives on the fast track, as well as the ways in which these executives define their core challenges. These insights can inform how managers can support their fast-track executives to reach their full potential and how organizations can drive the content and delivery of leadership development programs.

Key Challenges Facing High Potentials

Over nearly 20 years, the high potentials in our program have consistently identified five consistent leadership challenges:

• Leading teams
• Leading change
• Leadership style
• Leading at scale
• Driving business results

More than 30% of high potentials cited leading teams as their core challenge. “My biggest leadership challenge is determining methods for leading team members,” one 2005 executive noted. “Each team member’s background is different and each one is driven differently. I must then manage differently.”

Fifteen years later, high potentials noted the added complexity of leading global teams remotely. “Having enough time to develop employees while advancing organizational goals is a real challenge especially in a virtual environment,” as one 2020 program participant said.

For the most part, men and women cited similar leadership challenges. However, women were more likely than men to cite “leadership style” as a challenge. As one woman noted: “I struggle with my leadership style. I am a very driven, see the end goal, and often think that everyone else around me should be able to do the same. When giving direction or communicating to members on my team, it can sometimes come across as being parental and directive. Although I am highly regarded and respected, I want to make sure that my leadership style continues to be one of encouragement, motivation, and development versus one that turns people off and they therefore do not want to follow me and my vision.”

What Got You Here Will Not Get You There

Transforming from individual contributor to team leader can be quite difficult. Over the past 20 years, sponsors pointed to two key strengths — an ability to drive results and functional or technical expertise — as the central reasons for identifying and nominating employees as high potentials.

But to reach the next level, high potentials who’ve been rewarded for personal accomplishments must learn to recalibrate to a definition of success based on the team’s collective performance. Relying on a past track record of success will not be enough as high potentials grapple with the scale, scope, and complexity of more senior general management roles.

Stepping up to higher levels of leadership requires six key skills, according to the managers in our data set:

• Strategic management
• Emotional intelligence
• Communication
• Leading at scale
• Leading teams
• Relationship management

As the sponsors in our data set considered the next step for their high potentials, they often cited the need for high potentials to have a broader vision and a deeper sense of the strategic and competitive landscape. They noted that the technical and functional skills that enabled high potentials to excel may in fact impede their ability to see the “big picture.” As one manager wrote, “Calvin’s* weakness is seeing the bigger picture of how what he manages affects the entire organization.”

In addition to widening their apertures, high potentials also need to expand their emotional intelligence and communication skills. A representative comment from a sponsor said, “John has very strong hard skills. He is strong in operations, sales, and leading the development of new technology, but he must improve his soft skills. He has a big blind spot in terms of how he treats people.” Sponsors in our sample were more likely to identify strategic management as a developmental opportunity for women and emotional intelligence as a developmental opportunity for men.

. . .

While high potentials have been recognized for their results-orientation and work ethic, the next step in their leadership journey will depend on their ability to work with and through others. That success will come from a heightened focus on emotional intelligence, communication, and relationship management. To ensure the success of their high potentials, managers and organizations must provide coaching, developmental support, and stretch opportunities, and high potentials must embrace them with an open and learning-oriented mindset.

*Names have been changed.