They don’t like to talk about it, but your strongest leaders may be starting to doubt their ability to deliver the results you need in 2025.
Findings from our research report The Roundtable Report on High Potential Leaders showed that almost half of high potential leaders (48%) say delivering on organizational objectives is one of their top three challenges. These aren’t rookies weighing in. 45% have 16+ years of people management experience.
If your key leaders whose hallmark is high capacity and ability to achieve stretch targets are overwhelmed, what does that mean for everyone else?
It’s not these leaders don’t know what to do. 76% of those surveyed are clear about what’s expected of them and they’re hardwired to deliver. 49% of top leaders say driving organizational success is one of their top motivators.
So what’s causing the disconnect between the clarity of the goal, the motivation to get there and the fact that they’re worried about falling short on delivering results? As the external environment continues to shift and change, leaders in the middle are seeing mandates rapidly increasing, expanding and shifting in combination with reduced staffing and budgets as organizations begin to hedge their investment bets.
Strategic Pivots Are Exhausting Your Strongest Leaders
No doubt, senior executives are feeling the pressure to respond and adapt to an endless barrage of instability and outside influences. With so much change and disruption happening, it can feel difficult to stay the course when the course is shifting at a rapid pace. However, all these strategic pivots mean your top performers feel the goal line they’re pushing towards keeps changing. And that’s a challenge for leaders who are highly wired to win.
In our survey, high potential leaders shared they’re feeling whiplash and fatigue from – what may feel like – constantly changing priorities.
Crystal balls for organizational strategy are in short-supply, so for C-suite leaders, providing clarity, transparency and focus can be critical antidotes in uncertain times.
Your High Potential Leaders Need More Clarity and Transparency
Your strongest leaders want to feel more in step with what you’re thinking, seeing and pressure-testing, so they can make better decisions with their teams.
As one leader in our survey noted: we need more context and the “why” behind decisions, as well as a clearer understanding of the overarching end goal.
They also want to be given time to see if their efforts will pay off. This can’t be done if priorities and strategic focus areas keep changing. Work with them to test “big bets” with small experiments, and make time to discuss what they uncover to help them course-correct where needed.
Keep it Simple. Communicate Often. Course Correct Clearly.
For C-Level leaders to reduce the potential for burn-out and disengagement with their key leadership talent, consider incorporating these strategies into your senior leadership practices:
1. Create an overarching theme for the business year. Do you need to cut costs across the enterprise? Create efficiencies? Innovate to expand into new markets? Set your focus and some clear and simple key performance indicators (KPI’s) and amplify them throughout the year. Set 90-day focussed sprints around the key themes to ensure traction is made and things can get course corrected quickly. Plus, use these shorter focused bursts to amplify and celebrate progress which fuels the wins that drives your high potentials.
2. Communicate shifts in direction early and frequently. New information is emerging in some industries daily. C-Suite leaders have a wider frame of reference and an earlier understanding on when a pivot may be required. Be sure to align your executive team around what is changing, why it’s changing and how you’re refocusing the efforts of the organization. Then clearly and consistently communicate the changes to your leadership levels below..
3. Slow down to move fast. In the need to be responsive to change, many executive teams find themselves rolling out plans quickly without understanding the constraints or challenges that may derail these strategic pivots layers below. Carving out time for thinking often gets short-shrift when senior executives find themselves in a tsunami of external pressure, but carving out the time for strategic thinking and not spending it in the weeds of execution is critical to avoiding unnecessary make-work projects two to three levels into the organization. Create cross-functional task forces to vet strategic pivots before implementing them broadly.
For more insights get your copy of The Roundtable Report on High Potential Leaders, our latest research on understanding a cohort of best and brightest leaders — their challenges and what they hesitate to tell their senior leaders.
If you’re experiencing high levels of change in your organization, book a call with Liane Taylor to explore how we can support you. Our proven processes in team coaching and group coaching have been designed to drive alignment and accountability, and are adaptable to the rapidly changing requirements of today’s work world.
