Leadership traits should not be solely designated to those with a manager title, but instead, should be a shared quality among your entire workforce. Company leaders should continuously search for employees that own the traits, qualities and abilities necessary to be a future leader in the workplace. According to SHL, employees who show high levels of potential are 91% more valuable to companies than non-high-potential employees.
Aside from the organizational need, seeking and preparing your future leaders assists with employee retention and boosting morale. When team members see a growing and successful future with a company, they are less likely to look elsewhere for employment.
Leadership qualities such as confidence, honesty and communication may be easy to spot in some employees. But the differentiators between a good leader and a great leader oftentimes are found beneath the surface. In this blog post, we will discuss how company leaders can identify leadership potential among employees and key traits to look for as you search for potential future leaders.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the number one leadership skill in the world. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand and manage the emotions of yourself and those around you. For leaders, having emotional intelligence is crucial to being a great leader. This trait can allow you to stay calm and collected in the face of stress and appropriately address a situation as opposed to taking out your stress on employees, inevitably making the problem worse for not only yourself but your team.
When identifying emotional intelligence in your team members, there are four characteristics to look for:
- Self-awareness – Is the employee aware of how they respond in situations? Does the employee understand their own feelings and how their actions may make other team members feel? Do they have a clear understanding of their personal strengths and weaknesses?
- Self-management – Does the employee apply self-awareness? Do they balance their moods to ensure worry, fear or anger do not get in the way of their job? This does not mean those emotions are not allowed, but more so, the employee has the ability to recognize a mood, understand how it can affect them and choose how to act.
- Social awareness – Does the team member understand how to react in social situations both internally and externally? Can the employee tailor interactions to achieve the best results for the situation at hand?
- Social management – Does the employee have the ability to build connections with others? Can they react to the feelings and emotions of others and positively influence them?
As a manager or team leader, ask yourself these questions to determine if each employee shows a high level of emotional intelligence. Having this skill can create a great foundation for potential leadership within the company.
Workplace Initiative
There are some employees who require more guidance, assistance and validation from management. Alternatively, there are others who excel in managing their time, tasks and workload without the needed push or ‘kudos’ from their manager or team members. Employees who can assess situations and formulate resolutions independently have workplace initiative – a great indicator of leadership potential. Workplace initiative includes a mix of skills that can help you both come up with new approaches to workplace problems and communicate them to other employees and management.
When looking for this trait among your employees, take a hard look at their workload, work style and personal development. Self-driven employees oftentimes go above and beyond their assigned responsibilities, completing tasks that are not typically asked of them. They also show confidence in their work, abilities and skills. Another key indicator of workplace initiative is found through feedback requests. Does the employee ask their manager for feedback? Do they accept the feedback and make improvements as needed? Having these traits are helpful in leadership positions. Managers and company leaders need to have the ability to complete many tasks that aren’t in their normal skillset but also have the humility and humble attitude to ask for areas of improvement.
Not Afraid of Failure
Failure is an inevitable aspect in learning, developing and transforming. Some of the best leaders have failed miserably before succeeding. For example, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and started an unsuccessful business before creating Microsoft. Leadership potential lies in the ability to become comfortable with failure and learn from the experience.
Spotting fearless employees is not as hard as you may think. Look for team members who take risks and propose creative ideas or solutions. These fearless employees understand fear can often hold them back from success, growth and positive experiences.
Hidden potential lies within every single employee, and while some traits may be more challenging to uncover than others, the results will be worth the hunt. Great leaders are often like diamonds: hard to find but worth it once you find them. Investing time and effort to uncover talented leadership can benefit not only your employees but your company culture and employee retention. To learn more about connecting with all types of employees, check out our blog on Why Senior Leadership Needs to Develop Relationships with Employees of All Levels!
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