Following a long-standing tradition, the cohosts of The Science of Personality podcast unveil the 2025 Derailers of the Year: 11 notable individuals and events aligned with the 11 scales of the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). Often referred to as the dark-side assessment, the HDS evaluates personality traits that can become counterproductive when not properly managed.

Last year’s derailers included Australian Olympic break dancer Raygun, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. So who or what made this year’s list?

Half of your managers are harboring an intent to leave your organization. They’re stressed, angry, and disengaged. And high potentials, specifically? They’re three to five times more likely to leave within the next year without a sense of purpose, trust, growth, and advancement. What would help them stay? Development. A better, more comprehensive high-potential program that truly meets the needs of high-potential employees is one of the best ways to help leaders, teams, and organizations flourish.

Identifying and developing future leaders is crucial for organizational success, yet many high-potential programs fall short. Without established best practices for a high-potential program, talent management processes can be inefficient, biased, and unsuccessful. Proof of this lies in the fact that global manager engagement is on a steep decline (from 30% to 27% in 2024, a greater drop than any other category of worker). Calling this a leadership crisis isn’t an exaggeration.