Are you a hidden gem or are you hiding (in plain sight)?

For the purpose of this article a hidden gem is an individual who is extremely talented but is flying under the radar. *Even high potential/key talent can be hidden gems or hiding out...but thats for a later date!

I’ve sat with this post for a few weeks now, bewildered by where to start and afraid of what I may uncover or reveal about myself. I decided to silence my fears and instead rely on the collective wisdom of all of you to flush out what I hope will be a honest, thought provoking piece that will spur rich dialogue. 

Over the course of the last month, I’ve had several conversations with people leaders yearning for good talent and employees who were frustrated by the lack of opportunities for advancement.

Why are these two groups not finding each other? 

The answer is multi-factorial and I will not pretend as if I know all of them. However, I do believe the reason for the disconnect has as much to do with the individual as it does the managers and leaders with responsibility for attracting, developing and retaining talent, the HR organizations, systems, and programs responsible for how talented is attained, assessed, and rewarded, and the senior leaders who create organizational cultures that attract or repel talented individuals. 

But, let’s start with the individual.

If I were to put the question in the title to you, would you confidently say that you are a hidden gem? What percent of your organization would you say contain hidden gems?

What if I asked you if you were hiding in your organization (a.k.a. retired in position)? How many people in your organization do you personally know are doing this?

The bad news is that both of these individuals can be detrimental to any organization. On one hand, it’s the missed opportunity of not tapping into that hidden gem, and on the other, it is a wasted opportunity, since the hider could be occupying a spot ideal for a hidden gem or they could be put in another "environment" where their potential could be unleashed. 

Some of these individuals go undiscovered because of the inherent bias of people leaders and HR tools used to assess talent. These HR tools sometimes rely on past individual performance which can be impacted by several factors as well as assumptions made by mangers on potential as a result of implicit bias. Academia has long proven that individual performance is not a predictor of a good leader in the same way high performance is not a predictor of high potential.

Since we will never live in a world without bias and no one has yet found the panacea for talent management, I believe our greatest opportunity is to lean on leadership qualities to find those hidden gems as well as shine a light on those hiding in the cracks. 

Although I've worked for five different organizations, certain leadership qualities like integrity, collaboration, result-orientation, urgency, talent development, adaptability, and disciplined risk-taking have been mainstays.

If you want to be seen as a gem, then you have to ensure that these leadership qualities are on full display. Below are a few things to try:

• Make yourself easier to find--- expanding your internal and external network is a good way to increase your visibility and awareness of your competencies and leadership abilities. It’s also a good way to enlist others in getting the word out about you. There is nothing great people love more than being the go to source for great talent. 
• Look for opportunities to showcase your leadership abilities (anywhere) --- being a good performer is a good start, but your leadership abilities are what drive your potential. You don’t have to gain and/or demonstrate this ability solely in your role or in your company. Volunteering for a non-profit or participating in an employee resource group are great developmental opportunities. Opportunities are abundant, if you decide to see them as such.
• Stop waiting to be picked --- Instead of waiting to become a gem, you could make yourself into one. In order to make a crystal you need the right ingredients (skills, competencies), temperature (environment/team), pressure (challenge/opportunity), time (long enough for you to start seeing changes), and space (it is hard to grow in a very confined space).
• Get a second, third, or fourth opinion on your appraisal --- Not everyone is qualified to assess your value.  This is a really important point since the value they see in you could be dependent on several factors. For example, a leader who is looking for someone to stabilize the business may not see value in someone who is a disruptor. Additionally, sometimes we remember the one "bad" thing someone may have said about us and that now becomes how we see ourselves, even if other have countered that perspective. If you are consistently getting the same constructive feedback, then it may mean that it is time for a self-assessment.

If you are hiding, be on the lookout for my next post.....