In reality, neither you nor your employee will ever know what their full potential is.
We may discover a limit to their potential in a given area, but that will be based on their interest not their capabilities. Once any of us reaches a level of competence in an area that no longer holds much challenge for us, we lose interest. That lack of interest results in us spending less time improving our skills. In other words, we reached our “full” potential in that area, because we are no longer interested in learning more.
What does that mean for your organization and your ability to transform your workforce into future buyers of your business?
Full-potential implications
Armed with awareness that full potential is unknown except in a very limited arena, you can improve upon your:
- Hiring practices.
- Promotion practices.
- Retention practices.
- Organization’s growth and profitability.
Let’s examine each of these in more detail.
Hiring practices
One of the keys in hiring effectively is understanding where the person’s interests lie. Do they prefer to specialize or are they more generalist by nature?
It’s fairly easy to discern from a person’s history whether they prefer to specialize or have generalist tendencies. The former’s success has been within a narrow discipline while the latter has produced results in a variety of roles without much supervision.
It’s essential that you hire interests (desire) instead of skills. Skills can be taught, desire cannot. Additionally, people with high levels of interest and few skills will learn the skills they need more quickly because it interests them.
The key is to identify a potential employee’s interests early in the hiring process.
Promotion practices
A common mistake made, especially in large organizations, is to hire specialists, then promote them to a managerial role.
Managers must, of necessity, be generalists. They must be able to adapt effectively to a variety of situations and produce results in areas in which they don’t possess expertise. Conversely, specialists are generally ill-adept at dealing with issues outside their realm of expertise.
Specialists often also lack the “soft skills” needed to motivate and elevate their direct reports. It’s not unusual for companies to lose top performers because their specialist boss doesn’t provide what they need to enjoy and thrive in their role in your organization.
Awareness of whether a person’s interest is as a generalist or specialist will help you make better promotion decisions.
Retention practices
After having read a number of articles on Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for, I saw a theme emerge. The employees in these companies were consistent in their messages about why they enjoyed working for their company. They:
- Felt a part of something bigger than themselves.
- Enjoyed the work.
- Received appropriate recognition for their accomplishments.
- Were continuously growing personally and professionally.
- Could work autonomously utilizing their natural style.
One of the keys to retaining top performers is to continuously raise the bar. If they’re happy with their role, then demonstrate your belief that they can achieve even more in that role.
If their interest is waning, it’s time to explore what their new interests are and effect a shift in their roles and responsibilities to their new area of interest. By doing so, you acknowledge that they’ve “reached their full potential” in that regard; but have tremendous potential in the area of their new interests.
Organization growth and profitability
When business owners stop limiting their employees’ potential under some illusion that they’ve reached their full potential, they accelerate the growth and profitability of their business. The simple reason is that their employees:
- Feel a part of something bigger than themselves.
- Enjoy their work.
- Receive appropriate recognition for their accomplishments.
- Are continuously growing personally and professionally.
- Enjoy working autonomously using their natural style.
My Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal program will help you and your employees experience potential well beyond what any of you thought possible. In doing so, you also position your employees to become future owners of your business when you choose to leave.
Resources
Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal program helps you identify and nurture emerging leaders who elevate all around them to higher levels of performance and greater job enjoyment.
Financial Awareness & Strategy program where employees learn to identify opportunities to improve financial results and prioritize these opportunities on the basis of which produces the greatest impact with the least effort. Greater financial awareness = Better decisions.
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