Recognising Leadership Potential

​As leadership becomes increasingly important in organizations, so does the need to recognize and nurture raw talent. After all skills can be developed over time but attitude requires a bit more, beginning with a “want to improve” desire.
 
Leadership today has also changed phenomenally from decades before. More than anything, resilience with a nimble focus is a necessity to chart uncertain waters.
 
Hence, the journey to becoming an evolved leader involves personal and professional development with a high level of flexibility to embrace change. Today, organizations need to look for organic leaders who already have a deep understanding of culture and are showing clear signs of leadership potemtial.
 
Recognizing new leaders for succession planning needs to emanate from managers who observe the following;
 

• A deep desire to learn whether it be an openness to being coached and mentored / attending courses
• A high level of self-awareness with the ability to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses
• Volunteering for projects showing initiative in progressing the team’s or organization’s outcomes
• Firm but popular with team members displaying a high level of emotional intelligence
• A good decision maker who knows how to think on their feet with pressure and deadlines looming
• Most important of all, a deep sense of integrity in all aspects of work and people relationships

 
While organizations typically attribute a lot of emphasis to personality profiling for suitability of jobs, I personally believe this is stereotyping individuals. We are capable of a lot more than our innate personality affords, as long as we are flexible and adaptable and willing to do a new job.
 
Pushing beyond the boundaries of our minds, we are able to do jobs that are not within our “favorite things to do” but in the list of “need to do”.  Prime Ministers of countries were great leaders despite the fact that their personality profiles did not show natural leadership traits.
 
There are leaders in your organization who are ready to progress to higher levels of stewardship. Harness their potential!