Underestimating Employee Potential

Business owners and leaders, are you underestimating your employees’ potential?

Background

Early in my career as a CFO I had the good fortune to learn a very valuable lesson about potential. As the leader of the finance group I always had a lengthy list of things I wanted to accomplish. I told my employees that whenever they had free time to let me know because I needed their help in working through the list.

One of the bookkeepers came to me and said that she had extra time. I looked at the next item on my list and saw that it was a complex analysis. My initial thought was that it might be too difficult for this bookkeeper, who had no formal education…just on the job learning.

Somehow I managed to overcome my reluctance. Instead, I spent a little more time explaining what I wanted to accomplish, why it was important for the company and some of the things to look for in her analysis. An hour later she came to my office and said: “Dale, I’m running into a recurring transaction that we didn’t discuss. I think it may have an impact on the results we get.”

“Might have an impact” was a serious understatement. Had she not brought this to my attention, the results would have been skewed so badly that it could have led to some bad decisions. Here was a woman whose abilities I questioned who had just pulled my bacon out of the fire. From that moment on, I’ve made it a point never to underestimate anyone’s potential.

Takeaways

Here are some questions for you:

• Are you resisting delegating because you’re underestimating your employees’ abilities?
• Are you avoiding providing leadership and finance training for your leaders and their staffs because you don’t think your employees have the ability to grasp new concepts?

If so, you are depriving yourself and your company of the success it could enjoy…both in terms of profitability and increased value of your business.

The resources below will dramatically increase your company’s profitability and value while possibly developing potential buyers for your business when you choose to leave. They’ll also help protect your family in the event of death or severe disability.

If you’ve found this post helpful, please share it with your friends. It’s a great way to let them know how much you care.

If you’d like the leaders in your organization to learn how to use the numbers more effectively and/or dramatically improve the productivity of your workforce, contact me to learn more about these resources:

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.