Helen Floor, founder and managing director of 1-1 Recruitment in Hampshire believes potential can be singled out through careful research. She says: “It’s important to be able to work closely with your teams but also having a trusting relationship with your employees.”
This means taking time to socialise with your workforce. This can help you to understand more about their wants and needs in an informal setting without work pressures impinging on the conversation.
She adds: “On a more formal note, I think it’s important to have a mechanism where you can nurture talent and help employees channel their ambitions by setting goals and objectives to help them progress.”
It is usually difficult for an individual to move out of the retail sector but a few years ago I secured a job for a retail candidate in an HR role. Helen FloorThis, she explains, can work alongside the more traditional approach “Many organisations still have a traditional annual appraisal, which many people like, but at 1-1 Recruitment our talent management system is set up for regular catch ups where we can ensure our employees are on track with any progression training or personal development planning.”
David Murphy, managing director of Talent Acumen, agrees that the best way to spot potential is to understand your team members and identity their work ethic.
He says: “You can do this by looking at their willingness to learn, persistence when taking on a challenging task and resilience when things go wrong. It’s all about attitude."
“Strong communication and influencing skills, an aptitude to understand technical job briefs, flair for selling to a client, and a strong overall performance of function and job remit are also key - but you’ll know when you have someone worth keeping hold of if you really understand their character and personality, and whether it’s a strong fit with your own company culture.”
Carnegie's theories
Ms Floor is a fan of Dale Carnegie’s theories and her business uses some of his methodology to create personal development programmes for people considered to have potential. She explains that this includes ensuring any skills gaps are addressed.
She says: “For example I’ve currently earmarked a couple of individuals within the group who have shown promise in the area of client development; they need more sales skills, so sales skills training has become a part of their development path.”
“When we send people on professional development courses we take our part in it very seriously and ensure that, as managers of the participants, we review their progress and watch them present at the end of their course."
“We also set stretch objectives in line with any progression training and check these in monthly meetings; a lot can happen in a year when someone is developing so I feel that development needs to be watched closely, with open feedback and ongoing support.”
“So much of potential is about attitude and hunger, and I hope that more people start to understand this more and learn to recognise that people don’t need to be able to tick every box, especially with the skills market being in its current state, with more people starting to be given jobs in recognition of their potential.”
Ms Floor says many of her clients are themselves concerned about a lack of potential in the talent market. “The skills gap is something that everyone talks about. But sometimes the hardest challenge is recognising when someone has the attitude, hunger, traits and transferable skills to be able to change sectors or functions.”
She gives the example of one particular client who showed potential, but needed the opportunity to showcase that potential. “It is usually difficult for an individual to move out of the retail sector but a few years ago I secured a job for a retail candidate in an HR role."
“The thing is I could see she had the potential for the role although the client didn’t recognise this from her CV. She had a strong desire to move into HR and had put herself through CIPD training. I knew if she could get in front of the right people, she would succeed.
"She’s now progressed within the company to the position of section manager – and she didn’t even have to take a pay cut to get into the organisation in the first place.”
Developing potential is of course harder than spotting it, according to Mr Murphy.
He says careful nurturing is key. This means allowing an employee to learn from their mistakes and taking a mentoring approach.
“This can add huge value through knowledge sharing and guidance as you offer advice but allow them to develop their own style and make their own decisions about which routes to take.”
Client contact is also important, he adds. “Don’t shield your team members from clients under the premise of them not being ready, it’s important that they understand first-hand the client’s pressure points and ultimate drivers to enable them to succeed in their job and become a valuable team member within the business.”
Potential
Lisa Winnard, HR and business services director at Sesame Bankhall Group, says that when thinking about the development of potential talent you should first consider where that potential can be used.
She explains: “What opportunities could arise with your business that you should give priority to and what strengths are required in order to excel there? Who has already started to display abilities in these strengths?”
“At Sesame Bankhall Group we involve all of our management, HR and people development teams in the identification of potential talent.
"We are able to spot our talent as a result of our structured performance management framework, including monthly one-to-ones, half-yearly appraisals and annual people reviews using a talent assessment matrix. Our competency framework and values provide the foundation of our judgement.
Potential, says Ms Winnard, should be developed with consideration to the future needs of the business, as well as the learning preferences of the individuals concerned. However, a formal approach with specific learning outcomes and commitment of line management is essential.
Ms Winnard says: “You should be aware of the need for any classroom-based learning to be reinforced in the work place, both through a uniform approach between the learning experience and the actual environment, along with the opportunity to practise the skills in development."
“Often the provision of a mentor enables effective reflective learning to really capitalise on the enhancement of an individual’s potential and integration into a different level of performance.
Why should you develop potential?
- To make sure management roles are filled when they become vacant.
- To enhance the capability to achieve more challenging objectives and outcomes.
- Enhanced potential for candidates for new or replacement roles to be sourced internally rather than externally.
- Improved retention of talent and knowledge.
- Maintenance of a culture of personal development and well being resulting in positive employee engagement levels.
- Motivation and morale capitalised.
- Increased confidence and competence in skills.
- Customer experiences enhanced.
- Opportunities to gain experience in advance of promotion.
Developing the aptitude of your team means an increased fee-earning capability as they developing sales ability or secure repeat business from increased customer satisfaction.
You will produce a much happier, more engaged, challenged and motivated personnel who are all working towards the greater goals of the business.
You will be able to delegate further responsibility and move tasks off your desk to release bottle-necks.
Potential downsides:
There is a risk that you could end up with too many ‘individuals’ rather than a team.
It’s also important to ensure you have a talent pipeline, as if you are developing team members to rise through the ranks you need to be able to fill the funnel back up again from the bottom.
It’s important to have a culture where your teams are strong across the board, so those ‘steady safe pair of hands’ doing the day-to-day tasks also are invested in, and do not feel potential jealousy / bad feeling towards the ‘rising stars’.
There is always a risk that by developing someone you are helping them on their career path, and they could potentially be poached by competitors but this is a short-sighted view to focus on.
samantha.downes@ft.com
