Spotting great employees: How to pick and nurture future leaders

Debra Taylor
June 26, 2013
news.com.au

LEADERS of tomorrow could be buried in companies who don’t have the management skills to unearth hidden gems and recognise rising stars.

While most businesses talk about employee engagement and development, many don’t have a strategy to identify their best employees, often investing in office self-promoters and corporate psychopaths.

“The wrong people do sometimes get to the top of organisations – and more frequently than we feel comfortable about,” Professor David Clutterbuck, a world expert on leadership and management, recently told the HRIZON human resources conference in Melbourne in September.

“Organisational psychopaths get to the top of organisations and ruin everything while they are doing it.”

To prevent that, companies need to know who their leaders of the future are and nurture them.

“What businesses have got to look at doing is equipping their managers to be talent scouts,” says Mark Busine, General Manager of DDI, experts in talent management.

“They need to have a better set of criteria to identify who is a hidden gem and has the potential to grow, lead and bring out the best in others.”

One of the biggest management mistakes, Clutterbuck pointed out, is when managers are asked to describe what they are looking for when they promote people and they say ‘someone like me.’

“Companies need to approach finding the talent within their organisations as a process, we spend a lot of time on other processes, but often not on people,” Busine says.

Here are 7 ways to help rising stars make sure they aren’t shot down or overlooked when it comes to being singled out as a future leader…

1. BE RECEPTIVE
Can you take to feedback and constructive criticism? “You will get staff members who are really vocal about what they have achieved or have done, but when you give them feedback, they reject it,” says Busine. That’s the mangers cue to reject you as a potential leader of the future…

2. SOLVE PROBLEMS, DON’T CREATE THEM
Great employees show initiative rather than just sit back and hope someone else will solve the issue for them or give them a step up. Ask your boss if you can become involved in new projects, get onto training programmes and be exposed to how management works.

3. BE AGILE AND OPEN
Do you have an aptitude for learning new skills, technology and programmes? “Managers should be looking for learning agility here,” says Busine. “They want people who can learn quickly and adapt to new environments.”

4. KNOW WHAT TALENT MEANS
Try to get a full understand of what talent actually means to the organisation you are working for. Ask your boss or the HR department to give you information on what is valued and what skills they believe the company will need in the future.

5. AIM FOR BALANCE
Getting results is great, but not if it is at the expense of the values of the organisation you are working for. “An employee may get results, but they could be leaving a trail of disaster,” warns Busine.

6. THERE’S NO ‘I’ IN TEAM
If you want to be a future leader, then you need to show you are a team player; share your success, give credit to others, be inclusive and don’t blame other people for failures. You will be demonstrating to your boss that are good at building relationships and it will also help to build your good reputation too.

7. BE COMPLEX
Can you deal with complex issues and problems? You may know that you can, but you need to demonstrate that to your manager if you want to move up the chain.