Samantha N. Smith | I'm a people scientist. I study traits of high potential talent—and why the path to the top may undermine your ability to lead once you're there. At ghSMART, I've analyzed a subset of 30,000+ executive assessments to uncover the behavioral traits that predict who reaches the C-suite. At Harvard Business School, I found that competitive incentives (e.g. promotions, bonuses) drive top talent to isolate themselves, which may compound over a career into what I term a self-sufficiency trap: the independence that fuels their rise eventually undermines the relational demands of senior leadership. I translate these insights into evidence-based frameworks that help organizations better develop and retain top talent. My work has been published in Harvard Business Review, Harvard Case Collections, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Academy of Management Proceedings; I've been invited to share this work with audiences including the United Nations and Fortune 500 leadership teams. Ph.D., Harvard Business School. A.B. in Psychology, Princeton University (minors in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science).