Leadership - Quietly Powerful

What if your future leaders are already leading and…

When we think about future leaders, we tend to look in predictable places: succession plans, talent reviews, high-potential programs, performance ratings and people already managing teams.

These are useful sources of information, but they can narrow where we look and what we notice. Leadership that happens without formal authority, or outside the situations our talent processes tend to measure, can be much less visible.

How different can a leader be and still have…

Organisations often say they want leaders who think differently, challenge established ways of working and bring new ideas.

But difference creates an interesting dilemma.

A leader can bring exactly the challenge an organisation needs, but if their ideas aren’t accepted or people stop listening to them, how much influence can they really have?

What leadership does your organisation actually need, and can…

When organisations think about building their leadership pipeline, there is usually no shortage of activity.

There are talent reviews, succession plans, leadership programs, competency frameworks and assessments designed to identify who has potential and what they need to develop.

But there is a question that needs to come before all of these:

What leadership does our organisation actually need?

Talent Hidden in Plain Sight

“Leadership assessment often measures who’s ready to be seen as a leader, not who’s already leading.”

This was a comment a reader recently made on one of my articles, ‘Why we overlook capable leaders’:

The comment stood out because it captures something I have observed repeatedly over the years.

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?

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

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?

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.

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.

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.