How to identify leaders among your employees?
At the core of every successful business is a team of good leaders making good decisions, we cannot deny!
Any business needs a structured plan in place to identify leadership continuity. And for that to happen it needs to zero down on the individuals who have leadership potential. If the organization is not a corporate giant with huge HR budget to spend on all the talent management bells and whistles, should have at least basic structure to identify the talent.
This task must be on going to be an essential part of organization’s growth strategy. If your organization faces a leadership vacuum at any given point in time, then it will be unable to achieve its growth targets. Organization needs leaders who have credibility and authority required to push the workforce to meet the goal.
It is good to find leaders from within the organization, as they are well versed with the processes, organization structure, strength and weakness. This allows them to take better and more informed growth oriented decisions. Organizations use a variety of different metrics to define an employee’s potential and succession plans to project ones future contributions and impact. If we look beyond standardized tools there exists a set of critical behaviors and disciplines that one must possess to advance as a leader. Unfortunately, too many times scorecards are evaluated rather than the person themselves.
In today’s short-term, rapid-paced, mobile, trust demanding and politically infused world of work makes it more difficult than ever to discover and most importantly – properly evaluate and consider for career advancement opportunities. This is why so many mistakes are made during the talent evaluation process.
How to go about finding leaders from within the organization?
1. Focus on high potential – not performance.
Employee performance defines ability and expertise. It is a parameter one must keep in mind to identify a leader, but look beyond performance. One also needs to look for aptitude, desire to grow and overall potential.
More often, some individuals are not cut out to be a leader, although their performance is at higher end of the scale. They don’t have the capacity to take on leadership role and are content with being a follower. This is why focus on potential when identifying a possible future leader.
2. Level of Engagement
High-potential leaders will display high degree of interest in company’s goals, and engage in its future plan and strategy. They are all in and are invested in the future.
In assessing these high-potentials ask these questions: “Does this employee proactively contribute good ideas and propose strategies for improvising the workplace, growing the business or streamlining processes? Does he/she show interest in going above and beyond to get the results on behalf of the team?”
If the answer is yes, chances are you’ve identified an employee with the makings of a future leader.
3. Are they accountable?
Employees who hold themselves answerable for failure can be identified as leaders. If you see individuals shying away from taking responsibility for their actions because it might reflect poorly on them, then they aren’t leader material. Leaders aren’t afraid to hold themselves accountable for failure.
4. Farm in-house Talent
The cost of retaining and developing your workforce is cheaper than hiring from outside. Creating in-house leadership development programs is a great way to evaluate and identify your high-potentials further down the path. Be specific and target your leadership development to the needs of individuals and the company.
5. Remarkable communication skills
All leaders have extraordinary communication skills. If they want to get a particular point across to the people under their watch, they are able to do it effortlessly. The person who has the ability to explain ideas in a clear and concise manner, someone who deals with specifics and has the ability to listen.
6. Empathy & Emotional Intelligence
a. Does he/she help other people or team members?
b. Do they take time to interact with other employees?
c. Are they a good team player?
d. Are they a people’s person?
Finally, if you know you have high potentials who will make exceptional leaders, they may not know themselves, don’t obstruct their development. Help them to become aware of their unique skills and bring out their strength and talent so they can accelerate their development.