Hidden Leaders: Finding Talent in Unexpected Places
My old neighbour drove long-distance logistics for years. He drove all around the world, in different terrains, in extreme weather in every manner of vehicle you could imagine. His wife, on the other hand, never drove over 10 miles and drove the same family car for ten years. But when it came to teaching their daughters to drive, it was the wife who took the girls out in the car.
One day I asked him why, with all his driving experience, he wasn't the one teaching his girls to drive. He said, "I'm a great driver, but I'm an awful teacher."
Organisations could learn a lot from this level of self-awareness. Experience and expertise doesn't always mean someone is leadership material. You can be brilliant at your job and an awful manager. In research carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), almost one-third of workers in the UK said they have left a job because of a negative workplace culture. The survey pointed to widespread concern about the quality of management and its impact on workers' daily lives.
Organisations continue to look for leadership talent in the same places, using the same criteria for selection, when leadership potential often exists where we're not looking. Identifying future leaders requires breaking conventional talent identification approaches.
Blindspots in Traditional Talent Identification
In my previous article I explored how organisations using outdated leadership management, development and training practices are lagging behind in terms of business performance. The same can be said for how organisations identify future talent and develop their leadership pipelines.
How organisations typically identify "high potential" employees:
● Over-reliance on performance metrics
● Bias toward extraversion and assertiveness
● Emphasis on technical expertise over people skills
These approaches align with outdated leadership rules, resulting in real-world consequences including overlooking those with leadership potential, over promotion, having to re-appoint roles and high turnover.
Breaking the "Leadership Look"
There are common leadership stereotypes I see time and time again, and they have their limitations.
Extrovert Bias - We falsely equate the propensity to speak up with an ability to lead. The loudest voice in the room isn't necessarily the one with the best ideas or the greatest leadership potential.
The Confidence Trap - We mistake confidence for competence. Those who project absolute certainty may be covering for a lack of depth, while more thoughtful, nuanced thinkers might appear less decisive.
Valuing Presentation Over Substance - Polished presenters often advance faster than those with deeper insights delivered less dramatically.
Just because it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck….doesn’t mean it’s always a duck.
Positive and healthy work cultures where people enjoy their work and are supported to thrive rely on competent, considerate people leaders who model that behaviour and are able to bring out the best in others. The person who can shout the loudest isn’t necessarily the person who can create trust and psychological safety at work. The consummate presenter isn’t always the person who can spot and develop strengths in the people around them. And the ability to influence doesn’t always come with authority.
If organisations want to be different from the two thirds of businesses where people are leaving because of bad managers, they need to do what the other third of businesses are currently doing. Organisations have to do things differently and find new ways to identify talent, promote and develop their teams. Traditional management selection often favours men over women based on unfair gender stereotypes and assumptions that put some at a disadvantage. The world is different, business is different - businesses need to adapt, move away from the familiar and look deeper for future leaders.
A practical framework for identifying potential future leaders
It’s time to rethink the signs and signals of a great people leader. To recognise leadership qualities beyond the stereotype, look for:
● Listening skills and thoughtful contribution.
● Problem-solving approach and collaborative ways of working
● Influence without authority
Where to look for hidden talent
Unexpected Sources of Leadership Potential
● Project contributors who enable others' success
● Championing others
● Cross-functional relationship builders
● Quiet problem-solvers who see and stop issues before they arise
Signs of Hidden Leadership Potential
● People others naturally turn to for guidance
● Those who take ownership without formal authority
● Employees who think systemically beyond their role
● Team members who elevate others' performance
Developing non-traditional leadership pathways
Beyond identification, we need to nurture leadership in employees with unconventional profiles:
● Customise development approaches for different types of hidden talent
● Create alternative progression pathways for people who don’t want to be people leaders
● Create psychological safety for emerging leaders to develop their authentic style
● Build confidence in those who don't fit the traditional leadership mould
If you look around you and are open to unexpected scenarios, you'll uncover a mountain of descriptors that point to the key qualities and characteristics of leadership. From agility to communication, delegation, resourcefulness, compassion, consideration, courage, the list is endless, there is a wealth of different qualities that exemplify and model leadership behaviour, everywhere. Potential leaders are often already leading informally. Leadership potential exists throughout our organisations, and often right under our noses. By broadening your perspective on what leadership looks like and where it might be found, you can tap into a vast wealth of leadership potential that traditional approaches miss entirely.
If you would like to find out more about how I could support your emerging leaders, I’d love to hear from you. Book your complimentary business development call today.