Being an effective leader requires going beyond meeting deadlines and achieving goals. The best leaders understand they play a critical role in identifying and nurturing the next generation of leaders by developing and coaching them to be ready to take on increased responsibilities.
With the fierce competition for talent, organizations need to tap into their talent pool, and direct leaders are the linchpin. Yet, many leaders could use a brush-up on some of the early indications that identify leadership potential. So, if you’re wondering what you should be looking for, here are our 14 signs a direct report may be one of your future leaders.
A hallmark of leadership potential is the ability to understand the big picture, team goals, and what needs to be done to succeed. If you have a direct report that shows initiative and applies good judgment in deciding what needs action to drive the mission forward, you may have a future leader on your team.
Individuals with leadership potential often possess learning agility - knowing how to learn and what to do when they don’t have an answer. As a result of their learning agility, you can spot these future leaders using their one-on-one meeting time to walk through the steps they took to create a solution to get your feedback. They will ask for input on what you would have done to learn and grow instead of using the time to ask what they should do.
In situations where a team of peers is working together, if one of your direct reports naturally takes the role of the leader, there is a good sign they have leadership potential. You can identify these individuals by how they keep the team aligned, focused on the mission, and accountable for their tasks.
No one gets through their career without making mistakes or experiencing failure. However, those with leadership potential can often bounce back quickly from mistakes and turn them into learning opportunities where they evaluate what happened and what should change.
Direct reports that seek your feedback and ask for mentoring opportunities could be potential future leaders. These coachable individuals know they don’t have all the answers, so they’re eager to learn from their leader. In doing so, they’re demonstrating humility and a growth mindset which are competencies needed to be a good leader.
Sharing their opinions, communicating with superiors, and pitching their ideas come naturally to those with leadership potential. These individuals do not shy away from upward communication. In fact, they embrace the opportunity to share what they think with those above them in seniority.
Being decisive and putting those decisions into action by breaking them down into a series of tasks is a crucial leadership competency. If a direct report demonstrates this early in their career, they may have what it takes to be a future leader at your organization.
Using social skills to build relationships and trust is vital to influential and inspiring leadership. Keep an eye out for direct reports with high emotional intelligence who can regulate their emotions, influence those around them, quickly resolve conflict, and build a group of advocates who genuinely enjoy working with them.
In partnership with the ability to build positive working relations, those with leadership potential tend to be self-aware of their behaviors, enabling them to self-manage their emotions, making them great at rallying the team through a stressful situation.
It will be hard to have your ideas implemented or directions actioned without strong communication skills. With leaders spending upwards of 80% of their day communicating, the importance of leadership communication abilities cannot be overstated. Therefore, if a direct report is a good communicator today, they may have one of the critical skills needed to step up into a leadership position tomorrow.
An intrapreneur is an individual who behaves like an entrepreneur within a team or organization by uncovering new business opportunities and finding solutions to customer's pain points. Those with leadership potential are keen to drive the business to evolve, don’t shy away from change, and are tolerant of ambiguity as they wrestle with new ideas.
Direct reports who are the go-to for their peers and who lend a helping hand when someone is struggling, not for the recognition but as a genuine desire to see their colleague succeed, may have what it takes to be a leader. The foundation of a great leader is the ability to encourage and recognize others, a willingness to help, and show empathy to someone facing a challenge.
Accountability in the workplace, which is the acceptance of personal actions that contributed to achieving or falling short of a goal, is undeniable skill leaders need. Leaders must be able to lead by example when it comes to accountability, so if a direct report takes ownership of their results now, they will likely continue to in the future, making them prime for promotion to leadership.
Your future leaders are likely great individual contributors today. A 2015 study uncovered that having a leader with the technical knowledge and “ability to get the job done” has the most significant positive influence on the job satisfaction of their direct reports.
Moreover, Steve Jobs agrees with this assessment that great individual contributors are your best source of future leaders, even the ones who may not have the desire to lead. He said, “You know who the best managers are? They're the great individual contributors who never, ever want to be a manager, but decide they want to be a manager, because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them.”