Leadership Portrait: Evolving How Organizations View Executive Potential

In this tumultuous, high-stakes environment, how can organizations identify leaders who are both adept at predicting and preparing for change and keeping their organization steady through the day-to-day? By measuring the executive potential of their leaders at the top.

While existing assessment models successfully identify rising talent, they have historically been less effective at differentiating leaders who are already succeeding at the executive level. To help organizations understand the best predictors of success among leadership teams within our changing business context, Russell Reynolds Associates created Leadership Portrait.

Built upon years of proprietary research, the Leadership Portrait model encompasses an executive’s readiness to meet immediate challenges—their relevant experience and leadership competencies—as well as their future potential—their growth factors and their ability to realize their full potential.

The RRA Leadership Portrait

^{Source: RRA proprietary research, 2024}

Executive Potential: A new way to measure success at the top of the house

In today’s ever-complicating world, the most successful senior executives can strike a critical balance between two kinds of change-readiness that predict potential: growth factors and potential realization.

Growth factors include systems thinking, curiosity and adaptability, drive and resilience, and social intelligence. Potential realization—the new component of RRA’s assessment approach—requires leaders to embody three factors: self-knowledge, values and aspirations, and wider impact and legacy. These elements help leaders align their personal values with organizational goals, maintain clarity of purpose, and articulate their desired impact on the broader ecosystem.

While leaders may index more on growth factors or potential realization, the two are intrinsically intertwined. If growth factors indicate the height of an individual’s proverbial “career ladder,” potential realization is the sturdiness of the rungs they balance upon on their climb to the top.

Potential realization is an ongoing journey

The key shift here? Understanding that making it to the top job is not the realization of potential. Instead, potential realization is an ongoing journey that even the most senior executives must contend with as the context and challenges around them evolve.

The new focus on Potential Realization creates a paradigm shift

Thriving in the unknown future will require a strong learning orientation, resilience, and emotional intelligence. Sitting executives and C-suite hopefuls alike must be deeply connected to the “why” behind their actions and decisions; take an honest, insightful approach to their own growth path; and understand the legacy and impact their leadership will leave behind.

Authors

Dana Landis is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Leadership Advisory practice. She is based in San Francisco.

David Lange leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Global Development capability. He is based in Chicago.

Dean Stamoulis is a senior member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Leadership Advisory practice. He is based in Atlanta.

Aimee Williamson is a senior member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Leadership Advisory practice. She is based in Sydney.

Erin Zolna leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Global Assessment capability. She is based in New York.

Methodology

Read more about the methodology behind the Leadership Portrait Model.