{"id":48354,"date":"2025-05-12T09:05:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&p=48354"},"modified":"2025-11-13T06:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T11:31:17","slug":"when-your-job-is-to-prep-leaders-for-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/when-your-job-is-to-prep-leaders-for-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing Your High-Potential Leaders for the Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Future-Focused View of High-Potential Leader Development<\/h2>\n

You know that high-potential leaders are the future of your business. But you have to develop them to lead in a future that is unknown, unclear, and uncertain … perhaps more so now than ever before.<\/p>\n

As an HR professional, you may find yourself wondering how to leverage the talent needed for today\u2019s business strategy, while also prepping your highest-potential leaders for tomorrow\u2019s?<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, a hi-po\u2019s value is defined in terms of the current<\/em> business strategy,\u201d according to Kevin O\u2019Gorman, author of \u201cDeveloping High-Potential Leaders\u201d in The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Coaching in Organizations<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The problem is, that approach misses the bigger picture. \u201cThe deeper value of developing high-potential leaders is creating the proving ground for leading in future ambiguity.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, organizations select and develop high-potential leaders based on notions of near- and longer-term future needs. They push competencies designed to create success within these scenarios,\u201d O\u2019Gorman explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut high potentials are the leaders who will operate in an unpredictable future; they need to be able to adapt to whatever comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, some development of your high-potential leaders should focus on the \u201cknown present,\u201d says O\u2019Gorman. At the same time, though, you must help your high-potential leaders develop their skills and capacity to respond to the un<\/em>known future.<\/p>\n

Best Practices for Hi-Po Leadership Development<\/h2>\n

The best development for high-potential leaders helps them take an active approach to making sense of the challenges they face.<\/p>\n

Creating leader readiness for operating successfully in an unknown future might involve on-the-job learning such as creating extremely challenging assignments that provide \u201cdisorienting\u201d learning opportunities. Or, it might entail putting high-potential leaders in new, unknown roles where they practice navigating ambiguous situations by engaging in collective sensemaking<\/a> and relying on new ways of thinking from others. Such heat experiences<\/a> test high-potential leaders\u2019 basic assumptions.<\/p>\n

In terms of formal development opportunities, executive coaching<\/a> is one of an organization\u2019s best tools for developing and retaining high-potential leaders with the capability to secure current and future success. Combining\u00a0coaching for performance<\/a> with other development\u00a0can help your hi-pos realize long-term implications and wrest understanding, insight, and meaning from their experiences.<\/p>\n

As your high-potential leaders process and make sense of the challenges, differing perspectives, and learning experiences they encounter, they experience vertical development<\/a> that enables them to \u201cgrow bigger minds\u201d and gain larger, more advanced worldviews.<\/p>\n

This increases their pattern identification, their ability to recognize and leverage polarities<\/a>, and their learning capacity, adaptability, and agility. (After all, great leaders are great learners<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It also helps them find novel ways to understand business problems, thereby securing your organization\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

What Else Do High-Potential Leaders Need to Succeed?<\/h2>\n

Finally, HR leaders need to remember too that high-potential leader development is not just<\/em> about developing the high-potential leaders themselves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also about the surrounding leadership culture<\/a> at your organization, the support these leaders receive, and the performance strategies the organization pursues. Consider:<\/p>\n