Unleash the Power of Your Hidden Leaders

Organizations know they need to keep re-stocking their leadership talent pools. Yet they spend little time developing an obvious source of leadership candidates – their “hidden” leaders.

You know them. You’ve worked with them. Maybe you've been one. They are a department’s “go-to’s.”

The people who are known for their expertise on how to do just about anything work-related.

And since they lead by being excellent, they generally command respect and have influence on their followers.

So why are they overlooked??

FINDING HIDDEN LEADERS

Three possible reasons.

1. They generally aren’t prone to boasting or seeking praise. They might consider it unprofessional to draw attention to work they’ve done well, since for them, doing a job well is what you do when you work.

2. They get overshadowed by colleagues who are flashier and more vocal, especially in talking about leadership ambitions with senior managers.

3. Organizational bias. Prejudice against gender, race, age, health, educational background, employment history; any of these forms of bias could result in hidden leaders being walled off in organizations from the leadership roles they could capably handle.

It's an unfortunate situation.

By failing to empower their hidden leaders, organizations forfeit a chance to expand their in-house leadership talent pool. At the same time, they miss an opportunity to harness a promising employee’s strong sense of duty and fact-based decision-making skills to meet business goals.

MISCOMMUNICATED MESSAGES

Sometimes the problem is just communication.

The highest person in the organization needs to communicate to the manager in the middle that the mandate is to keep an eye out for quiet potential leaders. But if that isn’t clearly communicated and understood, it isn’t going to happen.

On the other hand, while it’s worth it for organizations to bring their hidden leaders forward, much also depends on the willingness of the individual employee to push through their own comfort zones and possibly step up to a new level.

Sometimes, hidden leaders don’t necessarily want to be leaders. Being introverted, they like keeping their influence to their own department.

A CLIENT'S STORY

One of my clients was a company that wanted me to help a promising employee with a low-key personality gain the confidence to cross the threshold to the next level as a leader.

He’d come from a farming background and poverty. He’d started at the bottom of the organization, sweeping floors, cleaning machines in the company’s factories. Then little by little, he was given more and more responsibility.

By the time I met him, he was being eyed for a promotion to a job helping to turn around ailing factories. But he was afraid to speak in front of groups.

I helped him improve his mindset, speaking technique and stagecraft, empowering and equipping him for the task he was being tapped for.

Now he’s an executive whose work includes mentoring other hidden leaders and helping them to see they are enough.

WISE MANAGERS

His story never would have happened had his superiors not had the foresight to prioritize developing hidden leaders.

To help an organization find the right leaders to lead its charge to success, many senior managers must push through their comfort zones and bypass the “reliable” processes of leadership development that ultimately may be informed by bias – such as what university the candidate attended, how they dress and how they talk about themselves.

They must have the courage to ask themselves if organizational bias is keeping talented members hidden; if they are seeing more than just the piece of paper the candidate got from his university; and if they have seriously attempted to learn about who the candidate is – what brought him to the organization, how might their previous work experiences have equipped them for a promotion.

And then they have to take action steps to make it happen.

TEAM EFFORT

The secret of talent development is involving EVERY part of the operation in the process, be it setting practical and actionable plans for uncovering the aptitude of candidates, and equipping them with the skills they need to step into long-term leadership roles.

As with talent development generally, finding and empowering an organization’s hidden leaders must be a team affair.

To be done right.

DID YOU MISS THESE GREAT POSTS THIS WEEK?

"Speakers Who Think Differently, With Michael Barris" Premiered

My first guest was Jacqueline Wales, author of “The Fearless Factor”.?

We discussed how to manage self-doubt that keeps us from realizing our full career potential while sharing her tips for speaking with impact and credibility. If you missed it, click here for the recording.?

Guest number 2 will be Gary C. Laney, the author, leadership expert and serial entrepreneur.

The simple secret of getting and holding the attention of audiences

Are you trying to hold your audience’s attention while you’re speaking? It’s getting harder these days with so much tech and social media in the palm of everyone’s hands. I’ve got some simple secrets for you on how to always capture your audience’s attention no matter what!

These are just two of the things that have always captured audiences attention :

1. Let them “catch you” revealing your feelings spontaneously. ??
2. Audiences can’t help moving to the speaker’s side whenever a speaker expresses intense emotions.

For a full breakdown, check out the post below.

Don’t Use “I’m just shy” or “I’m an introvert” as a reason not to speak in front of a crowd!

Those are labels.

It's better to let yourself feel the fear - and to keep practicing, to keep speaking!?

You need to get used to feeling a bit of nervousness before you get up in front of the crowd. ??

Because it makes you think faster, react faster.

Fear actually helps you be at your best on stage - once you accept that it is the part of the same impulse that gives you the courage to get out there in the first place!

View the full post below

MICHAEL'S MOTIVATING MISSIVE

Despite its reputation, positive thinking isn't all that powerful.

Not without a positive ACTION to accompany it.

So if self-doubt holds you back from taking a self-improvement program, the cure isn't simply to embrace a positive mindset.

It's to act.

THANKS FOR READING THIS NEWSLETTER! LET ME KNOW HOW YOU LIKED IT.

SEE YOU SOON ... UNLEASH THE POWER OF YOUR VOICE!

And remember, as the US business consultant and author Price Pritchett says: "If you must doubt something, doubt your limits."

POSTSCRIPT ...

Join me on Tuesday at 2 pm ET on LinkedIn Live for the next broadcast of "Speakers Who Think Differently." These shows will introduce you to a variety of professionals who will talk about their body of work and how they use their public speaking skills to get their unconventional messages across. You'll learn lots of useful tips you can put back into your business, be it in speaking in meetings, webinars, media interviews, conferences or impromptu situations.

That's a wrap!

#publicspeaking #personaldevelopment #speakerswhothinkdifferently #talentdevelopment #business