High Potential Leaders Can Surely Lead Teams, Right?

Kimberly Douglas • Apr 24, 2023

"Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." - Henry Ford   

As I was researching ideas for my last newsletter, I came across a compelling article from the Harvard Business Review that I found very interesting but also surprised me. Harvard Business School has been conducting a High Potentials Leadership Program for nearly 20 years. Researchers analyzed the leadership challenges and development opportunities facing the more than 3,000 high potential employee applicants. 

Consistently over the 20 years analysis, the 5 leadership challenges included leading teams, leading change, leadership style, leading at scale, and driving results. The six opportunities were strategic management, communication, leading teams, relationship management, emotional intelligence, and leading at scale. 

So here’s what surprised me, leading teams was cited as the core challenge by more than 30% of these high potentials.


We may think leaders with high potential should already have the skills to do many of these challenges. But surprisingly, some may excel in one or two challenges but need development in other areas. Or they may have proven that they can succeed with personal accomplishments but now need development to learn how to bring together a group of diverse people to meet the team’s collective goals. 


There are many reasons why leading teams can become difficult, even for the most practiced leader. However, based on the more than 1,000 interviews I’ve conducted over the past 20 years, below are the top 3 challenges leaders face when leading teams. 
  1. Lack of trust in the team can lead to unproductive conflict.
  2. Confusion regarding roles/responsibilities and decision-making authority process.
  3. Lack of clarity and alignment of team purpose, priorities, and/or goals.


And in today’s work environment, we have the added challenge of managing teams virtually, which adds complexity to the process. 


For these reasons and many others, it’s often time to call in a professional facilitator who can smoothly guide the leader and his team through the rough patches while learning how to work through the challenges of team cohesion.


As CEO of FireFly Facilitation, I can honestly say I love this work! This is the time when I see everyone come together and start connecting, communicating, and understanding the roles, responsibilities, and values each person brings to the team. 

Linkd to FireFly Facilitations e-book on Team Effectiveness

I offer at no charge my e-book Roadmap to Building High Performance Teams as a first step into what it looks like when working with FireFly and me to guide you and your team into a High Performance one. 


As always, wishing you and your team success,

 

~ Kimberly
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