Entrepreneur’n Moore

Derailing Behaviors:

How to Develop & Keep Your High Potential Employees

The most common profile for high-potential leaders who are likely to derail is smart, driven, and accustomed to pushing through obstacles to meet ambitious goals. This same hard-driving, risk-taking style that gets leaders noticed for high performance can also cause them to experience problems with their colleagues.

Below are a few common derailing pitfalls:

1. High potentials are more likely to derail if they do not learn how to show respect for others, listen to feedback, understand other’s perspectives, and accept their ideas to build relationships and gain commitment.

2. Other derailment patterns include leaders who have brilliant ideas and solutions but are ineffective in getting their ideas implemented through others; and leaders who get results but alienate peers and direct reports.

3. Not Listening: People who are unskilled at listening tend to cut others off, try to finish other people’s sentences, and interrupt to make a pronouncement or render a solution or decision. As a result, those poor at listening do not learn much from their interactions with others. Listen, do not just hear, others. If you are holding a conversation with someone, turn away from your email and other distractions. When someone else is speaking, do not just wait for your turn to talk — stay in the moment. Deliberately and actively listen to understand, absorbing what is being said, and allowing that to influence what you have to say.

4. Not Taking Extreme Ownership: A leader who cannot shoulder the blame is not someone we will follow blindly into battle. We instinctively question that individual’s character, dependability, and loyalty to us. And so, we hold back on our loyalty to him or her.

5. Arrogance: This will not surprise anybody, but a significant derailer at the top of firms (frankly anywhere in the hierarchy) can be arrogant. These individuals tend to be very smart but believe that they are the most intelligent person in the room/ division/company. They tend to be dismissive, controlling, rigid, dogmatic and can be condescending. The consequence is that they suppress the talent in their team and manage to make more mistakes because they devalue others’ ideas and overvalue their own. I call these types of executives the “I know” people. In this case, arrogance shows up as someone who feels like they know everything, and they have difficulty hearing other points of view. This stifles feedback, creativity, and innovation.

In a quest to achieve better results, the skill that needs to be developed is learning how to identify the best idea, and that means listening, asking questions, and treating all ideas equally—regardless of where they come from. Those individuals who have the humility to focus on discerning the best answer are better leaders. You cannot do this when you are arrogant. Humility is a crucial skill for successful C-Suite leaders.

Humility means having the ability to have courage and strength to allow others to shine. C-Suite leaders who know how to develop their staff will enable them to shine and develop people who know how to think and lead.

6. Self-Ignorance: Somewhat related to arrogance is the inability of an executive to see their own weaknesses. One of the most essential mechanisms leaders need to develop is to generate honest feedback from people they trust on strengths/ weaknesses. Executives need to find ways (mentors, specialists, coaches, etc.) to continue growing and developing. Executives need to create the infrastructure to generate external feedback and the mechanisms to drive improvement.

Self-awareness is one of the most essential skills that an aspiring leader can develop. As Socrates said, “Know Thyself.” A continual assessment of business capabilities, business acumen, and emotional intelligence skills and plans for continual personal and professional growth is key to becoming a C-Suite Executive.

1. Provide clear expectations in terms of valued behaviors.

2. Provide individuals with specific feedback on their performance and behaviors (what they do and how they do it) to meet expectations.

3. Make sure rewards such as promotions and bonuses do not send mixed messages—reward high potentials for both the results and the methods used to achieve the results.

4. Ensure high potentials develop skills for potential future leadership roles.

5. Coach employees to decrease the risk of derailment and create plans that foster the development of needed skills and behaviors.

6. Shape high potential development through clear communication and appropriate support.

7. Reinforce the company values and teach employees to demonstrate the importance of the organization’s culture.

Incorporating these steps into your organization’s processes, systems, and feedback mechanisms will help to build a pipeline of leaders who not only attain organization goals but demonstrate core values and practices that promote respect and inclusion for all.

In closing, if you can improve your ability to retain and manage high potentials, you will benefit from solid business growth and strong performance in the market. If you cannot, then all your energy (and dollars) will be spent replacing good employees.

Henry Dumas, Business Coach

ICF Credentialed Coach – MCC linkedin.com/in/henrydumas Moore Norman Technology Center 405-801-3540 • mntc.edu