Activating the full potential of your team members

Doing more with less: never has this injunction been so pressing for organizations. In a constrained economic context, in which a scarcity of resources is becoming the norm, managers are looking everywhere for as yet untapped reserves of performance. Nonetheless, engagement barometers today reveal a troubling paradox: employees feel both over-solicited—an inflation of meetings, of communications, of collaborative work—and under-employed in regard to their potential. A LinkedIn survey of 3.2 million professionals conducted in 2022 indicates that approximately one out of four employees feel that their skills are not fully mobilized in their current role, which makes these employees ten times more likely to seek another employer.

Liz Wiseman, a former Oracle executive and a specialist in leadership, has explored this phenomenon. She has identified management practices that are conducive to fully valorizing the abilities of one’s team members: identifying and underlining each person’s distinctive strengths; demonstrating explicit confidence in the team’s capacity to handle complex problems; and setting a high level of expectation that encourages everyone to surpass themselves. In teams where managers apply these principles, numerous team members report having accomplished missions they would not have believed themselves capable of. Liz Wiseman’s research documents performance gaps that vary by a factor of two depending on whether these talent-valorizing practices are implemented or not.

Beyond their daily interactions, these leaders strive to shape an environment conducive to everyone’s development and performance: they involve the team in the resolution of key issues, secure the leeway to allow the expression of talent, and endeavor to clear organizational bottlenecks that hinder their team members’ progress. This approach may require certain reflexes to be reconsidered—in particular, that of intervening to maximize immediate performance. But it generates greater job satisfaction, increased commitment and, ultimately, higher collective performance. How can you immediately start cultivating the conditions that will permit your teams’ potential to be revealed and amplified?

In this synopsis:
– Drawing inspiration from mentoring to support the future leaders in your teams
– Unleashing the talents in your teams
– Helping your team members to progress in their work