fferent people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. L

• Attracting and retaining high quality leaders is a challenge for many organisations. Organisations are finding it harder to attract suitable applicants for leadership positions. Further, many people who take on leadership roles fail to flourish in their new positions. Rather, despite their hard work and best efforts, they are mediocre leaders, who often do not enjoy the demands of the role. Many talented staff do not have the tendencies that fit or suit the role of a leader. Competitive organisations achieve leadership density through identifying and developing staff who show true high potential to thrive in a leadership role. This is more challenging that it initially may seem, as assessing potential is quite different to assessing performance.

More traditional aspects of predicting future performance are grounded in the premise that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. Put another way, if you want to predict how a person will perform at a higher level, you first look at their performance within their current level. This approach is quite valid in many circumstances and is the basis of selection techniques such as behavioural interviewing, placing weight on experience and reference checks. However, it is not suited to identifying potential for a new or different role – such as assessing the potential of non-leaders to assume leadership positions. Potential refers to a person’s innate ability in a given area. Despite the feel good rhetoric, we are not all created with equal abilities or talents. Whilst we can all develop our sporting competence, some people are more naturally gifted sportspeople than others. We cannot all be elite sports men and women. The same is true for many other areas, including musical ability, artistic ability, mathematical ability and leadership. Whilst any person can develop their leadership competence, some people possess more potential to excel as leaders than others do. Assessing potential involves assessing the likelihood a person will thrive within a set role that they have not taken on yet.You can use a range of quality assessments to predict the level of leadership potential of different people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. Legh identifying and developing staff who show true high potential to thrive in a leadership role. This is more challenging that it initially may seem, as assessing potential is quite different to assessing performance. More traditional aspects of predicting future performance are grounded in the premise that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. Put another way, if you want to predict how a person will perform at a higher level, you first look at their performance within their current level. This approach is quite valid in many circumstances and is the basis of selection techniques such as behavioural interviewing, placing weight on experience and reference checks. However, it is not suited to identifying potential for a new or different role – such as assessing the potential of non-leaders to assume leadership positions. Potential refers to a person’s innate ability in a given area. Despite the feel good rhetoric, we are not all created with equal abilities or talents. Whilst we can all develop our sporting competence, some people are more naturally gifted sportspeople than others. We cannot all be elite sports men and women. The same is true for many other areas, including musical ability, artistic ability, mathematical ability and leadership. Whilst any person can develop their leadership competence, some people possess more potential to excel as leaders than others do. Assessing potential involves assessing the likelihood a person will thrive within a set role that they have not taken on yet.You can use a range of quality assessments to predict the level of leadership potential of different people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. L valid in many circumstances and is the basis of selection techniques such as behavioural interviewing, placing weight on experience and reference checks. However, it is not suited to identifying potential for a new or different role – such as assessing the potential of non-leaders to assume leadership positions. Potential refers to a person’s innate ability in a given area. Despite the feel good rhetoric, we are not all created with equal abilities or talents. Whilst we can all develop our sporting competence, some people are more naturally gifted sportspeople than others. We cannot all be elite sports men and women. The same is true for many other areas, including musical ability, artistic ability, mathematical ability and leadership. Whilst any person can develop their leadership competence, some people possess more potential to excel as leaders than others do. Assessing potential involves assessing the likelihood a person will thrive within a set role that they have not taken on yet.You can use a range of quality assessments to predict the level of leadership potential of different people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. L gifted sportspeople than others. We cannot all be elite sports men and women. The same is true for many other areas, including musical ability, artistic ability, mathematical ability and leadership. Whilst any person can develop their leadership competence, some people possess more potential to excel as leaders than others do. Assessing potential involves assessing the likelihood a person will thrive within a set role that they have not taken on yet.You can use a range of quality assessments to predict the level of leadership potential of different people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. Lfferent people. To do so, you must first consider what characteristics make it easier for a person to lead well. These fall into three categories, none of which reflect a person’s performance in their current role:

1. A desire to lead and make a difference
2. A high level reasoning ability – raw IQ
3. Certain aspects of personality

Whilst it is possible for reluctant leaders to lead well, given the challenging nature of leadership, people are far more likely to persevere if they have a genuine desire to be a leader. Leadership positions are best filled by people who want to be in them. Blanket invitations to be part of a high potential leadership program often unearth high potential candidates who may be otherwise overlooked for a variety of reasons. However, such invitations should be accompanied by some reflective prompts that engage people in self-evaluating how fulfilled they would be when facing the harsh realities of being a leader. For example:

• What attracts you to the role of leader?
• What does a leader have to do?
• What will be the costs of being a leader? What will you find challenging? What will you have to give up?
• Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

By providing a blanket invitation, coupled with some self-reflective prompts you are more likely to receive applications from people with a genuine desire to lead.The second assessable aspect of potential is reasoning ability or IQ. It is quite true that having a high IQ on its own is not enough to make a person a good leader. Most modern literature emphasizes the critical role that EQ or emotional intelligence plays in leadership. However, even Daniel Goleman, acknowledges that a high IQ is a foundational element of leadership. In broad terms a person’s IQ measures a person’s capacity to accurately take in information around them, and make sound decisions based on that information. This innate characteristic has a large impact on the future effectiveness of any potential leader. What is needed is high IQ plus more. Therefore simple IQ tests focused on applied reasoning can be used as one foundational measure to further identify possible high potential leaders.In addition to a desire to lead and a high IQ, there are aspects of a person’s personality that either enhance or detract from their potential to lead. Some of these aspects of personality apply across nearly all leadership. These include:

• Self-management (high achievement drive, internal locus of control, acceptance of personal responsibility, self-control, emotional stability, self-confidence, conscientiousness, optimism, resilience)
• Interpersonal orientations (open, frien