You have some great talent on your team, but you’re worried you’re not using them to their potential, and that maybe they’ll end up quitting or just stagnating, sitting in their office chair, doing the same thing day after day, never truly benefitting themselves or the company. You know who we’re talking about. You probably had someone in mind as soon as you read the title of this article.

 

Don’t let untapped talent go to waste.

Here are a few ways you can ensure everyone on your team — even the most introverted — are fulfilling their potential.  

1. A Mentorship Program

A mentorship or sponsorship program within your company can greatly help to further develop the talent on your team. A mentor is very different from a coach — it requires experience, expertise and most likely a role or title several tiers above that of your mentee.

Mentors often use a soft version of the Push style (check this out further in ENGAGE), making suggestions and helping the mentee to stop and think through issues they’re facing, so as to make the best decision for their future. The mentor is not necessarily sitting and teaching the mentee how to do something or any certain skills — rather, the mentee is inspiring them and providing enlightenment, taking their thinking about their role and the world to an entirely new level. If you would like to know more about mentoring, read here.

2. Year-End Reviews

Uh-oh. It’s just about that time again. Year-end review time. Skip the awkwardness typically associated with these yearly meetings and make sure that the time is as beneficial for both you and your employees as possible.

My first tip is to ensure there are no nasty surprises during this meeting. If you staff are hearing developmental feedback for the first time at this meeting, you have not been doing your job as a manager throughout the year. That untapped talent? Make sure they know that you see their potential and you want to help them any way you can. Read here to teach your leaders how to give proper feedback.

3. Encourage Assertiveness

Sometimes, you have employees with great ideas and perfect potential, but they’re not assertive enough to make their ideas heard, and they end up getting walked all over by their colleagues. Don’t let this happen in your office!

If you’re a CEO and one of your managers or even a potentially one-day-manager is being walked over by their employees, or they’re just failing at the actually leadership part of being a leader, it might be time to give them some tough love and let them know they need to be assertive and stand their ground. If not, it could spell disaster for your company. Check out this Vlog from one of our success stories as to how she brought out that assertiveness.

4. Set Them on the Path of Becoming an Engaging Executive

Sometimes that untapped talent is willing and ready to live up to their potential (or maybe they even think that they currently are!), they just need the right resources. Setting up your employees with the Engaging Executive handbook, ENGAGE, that teaches how to become a professional who commands respect and authority, can put them on the right path.

Would you like to hear one of our success stories? Watch this Vlog as she put all she learned together on her way on becoming an Engaging Executive.