Identifying and Developing Leaders in an Organization

In my forty years of working in professional organizations, I have seen multiple individual predictive models, reviewed resumes from high GPA candidates who attended well-regarded higher education institutions, and had wonderful conversations with bright, energetic candidates that are well versed in communicating core concepts that allow businesses to succeed. Frankly, I have even witnessed insightful team members that are able to see obstacles to success and offer recommendations for improvement. However, it is rare to work with a person that aspires to be “The Man in the Arena” as former President Theodore Roosevelt spoke of. These are the people that I seek to be leaders of organizations.

If you have not read our former President’s explanation of who the “The Man (Woman) in the Arena” is, I encourage you to. These individuals will not be quickly identified, for they can easily be confused with superior resumes and communication skills. To truly uncover such an individual, you will observe them in the times when a person needs to make a sacrifice to achieve. This sacrifice may be time for preparation, embarrassment for the sake of knowledge, or even pride by being willing to go to places in their work journey in which they will feel less than and demonstrate commitment to achieve an outcome that is hard.

Please do not misunderstand my earlier comments. Well spoken, well-educated and well-trained staff can in fact become high potential leaders in an organization. However, there are steps to identify these individuals that truly have high potential. The tactics I utilize are measuring, testing, and stretching.

Measure: An organization should strive to measure each employee, or we lessen our opportunity to begin tracking those team members that contribute at a rate greater than others.

Test: When you objectively identify those that perform at a greater skill level, test them. Ask them to perform their current role plus. That is have them be part of a project team or be a champion of an activity inside their work group. This will force the team member to get out of their comfort zone and rely on others for success allowing me to observe their ability to work within a team and their developed (or undeveloped) skills to influence an outcome.

Stretch: We want to test the team member. Give them a high-profile task that will require them to achieve an outcome which will appear to be far outside their reach. These tasks will require them to learn, lead, and execute. Most employees avoid hard things whereas these “special” employees will demonstrate a level of dedication and sacrifice that is able to be observed by many. These “special” employees want to be part of hard things.

 

Your first step should be to understand what the employee wants to achieve in their career. Having an open and honest conversation will assist in visualizing where the individual could be placed inside the organization. Key questions may include:

 

• Are you willing to relocate for the company?
• What other lines of business in the company interest you?
• Is management of team members of interest to you?

In sum, once you have identified one of these high potential leaders, you have an important choice. Should you remove them from the high impact role they are in today for a position that promises greater future outcomes for the company? My experience has led me to believe that, when possible, it is always better to err on the side of giving these talented team members the opportunity to become more than to improve the possibility of a positive outcome of today.

 

Written by Will Thatcher
President and CEO at Community State Bank
willt@csbemail.com
260.994.6039
February, 2024