Confucius said: I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand. The key role in the efficiency of investment projects in industrial enterprises of organizational skills of managers plays vital role, who in ideal should be leaders, enabling organizations ef­fectiveness. It is a fact that leadership potential is needed in the specific professional situations, allowing manager to become organizational leader and become successful in managing activities. The sources in leadership theoretical analysis shows the lack of the position power research in organizations. Some ideas of this paper were discussed in the earlier publication. This paper rethinks and specifies some Western sources of diagnostic methods within their interpretations. The paper pres­ents the research results on the leadership potential of managers in organizations, as this potential becomes a basic source for a manager building towards being the organizational leader. Nowadays managers have a lack of leadership potential, as it is shown in research. In the paper there are presented the results of the research on the key elements of the leadership potential for managers, moreover, the revealing analysis of the leadership potential structure components of contemporary managers. The results of the research can be used by HR-managers and anyone interested in the issues related to the leadership potential development, effective management and developing the leadership skills in organizational leader.