Blog - Quietly Powerful

Why We Overlook Capable Leaders

Some time ago, I worked with a leader who was told she had “no leadership potential.”

The verdict came after a leadership assessment centre where more than 100 leaders at a similar level were assessed for future leadership potential. Over the course of one day, participants completed activities such as presentations, group discussions and other observed exercises.

At the end, she was assessed as having little leadership potential.

The problem?

Leadership

The Executive Presence Trap

“You need more executive presence.”

I’ve heard versions of this phrase throughout my career.

And I have heard from clients that lack of executive presence was the reason someone was not being promoted.

Sometimes it meant:

not confident enough
not polished enough
too quiet
not visible enough
not leader-like enough

Leadership

How you can tap into your team’s wisdom (including…

As a leader of a team, have you ever wished your team would contribute more of their talents?

That:

They would proactively make suggestions?
Capable, quieter members would speak up?
People would share their thoughts when asked?
Issues were raised earlier?
The team would engage with each other and solve problems together?

Leadership

Stop telling people to ‘speak up more’ if you…

How often do you tell people to “speak up more”?

Maybe you have a quiet team member that you really want to hear more from.
Maybe you want some feedback from team members and they’re not giving it to you.
Maybe you have team members who speak to you individually but say nothing in meetings.
Maybe you found out about issues too late and want to avoid that happening again.

In any case, you have a sense that you are missing out on useful, sometimes critical information when people do not speak to you or don’t speak up in meetings.

Leadership

Listening – the underrated tool for risk management

In boardrooms and executive teams, risk management is a standing agenda item. Leaders invest in policies, audits, insurance, and compliance systems. But often, one critical ingredient does not get enough attention — and it’s not a policy or a framework. It’s listening.

Diversity and Inclusion

Are you inclusive if you don’t listen to people…

When we talk about inclusion, we often focus on individual backgrounds and characteristics —such as culture and race, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc. — and creating spaces where everyone feels a sense of belonging. These are critical components of inclusion, but they are just the beginning. A deeper, often overlooked layer of inclusion is how we engage with people whose ideas, values, or perspectives differ from our own.

Conversation

Spot and develop your hidden talent to advance Meritocracy…

The concepts of meritocracy and diversity are sometimes perceived as being at odds with one another. Some people believe that a focus on merit is not inclusive, nor does it achieve diversity, while others feel that D&I initiatives dilute merit-based decisions. This thinking has created divisions between those who have supported D&I efforts and those who question it.

Diversity and Inclusion

Listening to the person rather than the content-Ad Hominem…

Did you know that what you listen to or reject depends on who is speaking much more than the actual content of what is shared?

For example, you might:

Dismiss suggestions from a junior team member simply because they lack experience.
Undermine external experts because you think they don’t understand the company’s history, culture or norms.
Ignore internal experts because you believe they do not have broader expertise on the topic.
Interpret ideas of someone you dislike as being bad ideas, even if the ideas have nothing to do with what you dislike about the person.
Not listen to someone who does not appear ‘leader-like’ or confident, even if the content they are sharing is of high quality.
Reject a competitor’s strategy outright because of animosity rather than critically assessing its potential merits.

Diversity and Inclusion

There are multiplying costs to undervaluing Quietly Powerful leadership

There is a multiplying cost to organisations, when they undervalue Quietly Powerful leadership.

I continue to hear from people in organisations that there is a bias towards more outspoken, confident appearing styles as what’s needed to be promoted into leadership.

The obvious cost of this bias is that quieter professionals are overlooked for leadership positions, even if they have the potential for leadership. This is the gap between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness (to read more, read this article).

Diversity and Inclusion

Sadly, there is still a stigma for being quiet

I wish I didn’t have to share this lesson 8 years after starting Quietly Powerful.

It has also been 12 years since Susan Cain‘s book, “Quiet”, and her TED talk went public, and there have been many other authors and coaches sharing ideas on quietness – whether it’s to do with introversion, cultural conditioning, power dynamics including silencing.

Despite all of this work, there still seems to be a stigma for being quiet. It’s a reality that can’t be ignored.