What If Your Best Talent Are Already Within Your Organization?

A hiring freeze hits, overtime gets cut, deadlines don’t move, and suddenly every manager hears the same message: make do with what you have. We start with a real factory-floor moment where the pressure is obvious, the team is tired, and the work still has to ship. Then we share the twist: performance improves anyway, not by adding people, but by growing people.

We dig into Management By Responsibility (MBR) and why it works so well in a stagnant labor market. Instead of pushing harder or slipping into micromanagement, we focus on capacity building through strengths-based coaching, emotional readiness, and clear agreements that create real ownership. We talk about why responsibility is personal, why people grow when they choose responsibility, and how leaders become talent developers rather than task distributors. We also connect the dots to today’s trends, including where AI can help with task data while leaders double down on developing the humans doing the work.

You’ll hear practical tools you can use immediately: questions that reveal what gives employees energy, a simple readiness check before adding responsibility, and a “growth agreement” that avoids corporate jargon but still measures progress. We also walk through cross-training and internal transfers, plus how HR can support the approach, especially when the freeze doesn’t stop the workload. If you want more leadership tools, check out John’s book Building Your Leadership Toolbox, explore Dr. Durst’s MBR program at SuccessGrowthAcademy.com, and then subscribe, share, and leave a review so more managers can lead better under pressure.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Leadership Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Well, hello, and welcome to our podcast, Success, Secrets, and Stories. I'm your host, John Wondolowski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, Greg Powell. Greg? Hey everybody. And when we put together this podcast, we wanted to put out a helping hand and help that next generation and help answer the question of what does it mean to be a leader? Today we want to talk about a subject that I think supports that concept.

The Hiring Freeze Gut Punch

SPEAKER_01 0:47

So imagine this. I'm a new manager and I'm walking onto the factory floor for the monthly leadership meeting. And we are all trying to start a brand new process that is going to make a change to the industry. And it's a revolution in terms of manufacturing. We're behind on budget. We're behind on schedule. On the way, walking into the meeting, I overhear the RD director saying, I've never invented on a schedule before. That's not how it works. I don't have a schedule when I'm going to invent something. And everyone is basically tired. Everyone is behind. Everybody is basically wondering how we're going to get everything done by the end of the year. And then the general manager walks into the meeting, clears his throat, and says the following There's a hiring freeze on for this quarter. No overtime, no exceptions. You have to make do with what you have. I felt my stomach drop. The team was already stretched. We were covering for two open roles. And now we're expected to deliver more with less? Well, here's the twist. Over the next three months, my team was more productive, more engaged, and more confident. Not because I hired new people, but because I learned how to encourage and promote the team through MBR. So welcome back to Success Secrets and Stories. And we're here to talk about something that I think would help long term. What to

What A Static Labor Market Means

SPEAKER_01 2:29

do during a stagnant labor market, hiring freezes, budget constraints, skill shortages, and the pressure to deliver more than what the team has ever done before. Or John, some folks call it Tuesday. Yeah, exactly. But here's the good news you don't need more people to grow your team. You need individual growth. And that's where MBR shines.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So, John, let's set the stage. What do you mean by static labor market? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Static in my world means you can't hire, you can't expand, you can't outho outsource. A little tidbit, I did a little bit of that to get over the hump. But you can't add headcount, and you can't throw money at the problem. And yet the workload keeps growing.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So leaders are basically being told do more with less, but without the less part ever really being defined.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah. Well, that is that that underlying challenge. Remember, those expectations and agreements, and they're just expecting less. Do more with less. And it's really comes down to redistributing tasks. And whenever you start talking about people who are actually under pressure, and some of the things that start to go sideways, you see them basically trying to push their teams, micromanaging, hoping that other people magically step up because they're falling behind. It's really a tough environment.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

And as we know, survival mode is not sustainable.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Right, exactly. And everyone is scared at that point. The pressure is palatable. The solution isn't more people. Okay, so what do you do? It's more responsibility, but responsibility grows through individual development.

MBR Turns Work Into Ownership

SPEAKER_00 4:27

So let's break this down. Why is individualized growth the key in a static labor market? Well, because you can't add people. Your only option is to increase the capacity of the people you already have. Let's talk about how capacity grows. Capacity grows when people work from their strengths, when they feel emotionally ready, when they choose a responsibility, when they have clarity and when they feel supported. This is the heart of MBR. So instead of filling roles, leaders start developing individuals.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

And you stop asking who can do this task, and you start asking who is ready to grow in their responsibilities. So let's connect this to the MBR, management by responsibility process, because that's where the magic really begins. And one of the things that really is highlighted is responsibility is personal. People don't grow because you give them assignments. They grow because they choose responsibility. They choose those assignments. Growth requirements are aligned with the MBR process in terms of finding the strength of the individual, motivating the individual, understanding that they have the readiness to absorb or take on new tasks. And most importantly, they have the energy and where you can kind of support that energy to be creative. The next element of it is that agreement rather than expectations and creating ownership. Real growth happens when there are clear assignments, where people understand shared commitments. And most of all, as a team, there's mutual support. That's when you're going to start to see that ownership piece start to flourish and actually grow. Leaders in a specific approach develop capacity, not compliance. You are not trying to get people to do more. You're helping people to become more capable.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

So MBR basically turns leaders into talent developers instead of task distributors.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yes. And that is leadership skill 101 for MBR. That really is the bottom line.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

All right. Let's connect this to the bigger trends we've been talking about recently.

Strength Coaching AI And Culture

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Static labor market is the challenge, and you're trying to maximize internal talent. You can't hire away your problems anymore. You're going to have to be creative. And what does that mean? Skill-based coaching, to understand the strength in terms of their alignment, leaders coach to the strengths, not to their job titles. Emotional readiness in terms of the MBR responsibilities, understanding that growth matches their readiness to adapt, to grow, to improve. It's not just their ability, it's being ready for the challenges going forward. Now, the ever-famous AI clarity is that challenge that we're all dealing with, but what it really means is more coaching. AI can handle the task data. Leaders have to actually develop the people. And that really springs bored into the last component of it is culture is a multiplier and responsibility spreads. When the people see that the team is growing collectively, the whole team starts to see that growth and that pulling the rope all together really makes a difference. That transition starts to take place.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So you might say the 2026 leader is basically a gardener, not a mechanic.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, you have to cultivate growth. You can't force it. So from the opening of this podcast, I described that moment in time where I walked into the monthly meeting and the budgets were frozen, hiring freeze, and everything was like immediately. It doesn't matter what you had on the plate, didn't matter who you had in human resources, no hires. This is when I applied the skills in terms

Creative Staffing Without New Hires

SPEAKER_01 8:56

of a culture multiplier. There were people within the organization that were doing different roles that I could reassign within my own department group. I was responsible for facilities, production maintenance, facilities maintenance, housekeeping, building and grounds. There were individuals that had talent that wanted to look into new positions. And we were encouraging cross-training and we expanded our capacity to get the work done. And we were able to do flex staffing in order to meet those requirements. During this process, we promoted one person within the mechanical field and we transferred another person from building and grounds into the production maintenance. By cultivating the team, there was a sense of responsibility and encouragement for career development. I was able to address the staffing shortfalls and still meet the department requirements. Admittedly, it was not the long-term plan. But the downturn of the organization was really the opportunity. And if companies could not produce the product within the timeline that they had, that section or that whole company was really looking at plant closing. So creativity was really the key. At one point, the human resource department stopped me and asked, Do you have permission to do these promotions and transfers in your own department? And I said that I went to executive management and told them that I wasn't going to increase my salary line or my salary costs, and I could do what I wanted. So, yes, I have permission. And what was interesting is the general manager got pushback from human resources. And his response I actually brought up during the next monthly meeting on how he was looking for other managers to be as creative as I was trying to apply, to look for the talent and the opportunities within the staff itself and seeing how we can meet that task of keeping the company running. And it was an interesting team moment where you see the organization pulling together. Let's give leaders

Practical Tools To Build Capacity

SPEAKER_01 11:05

some tools that they could use to implement this kind of process. The first tool would be understanding the employees' strengths and their alignment. Ask your team members what work gives you energy? Where do you want to grow? What responsibilities do you feel natural that come to you?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

And tool number two is the readiness check. Before assigning a new responsibility, as a leader, ask the following questions. One, how ready do you feel to take this on? And two, what support would help you succeed?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah. And what we're talking about is readiness and the difference between growth and being overwhelmed. And I love the term of an agreement. So, like a growth agreement is something that you're trying to do with your staff. And it's kind of simple. What does that person want to do in terms of growing into the next position? Why does that matter? What support do they need to make that transition? And how can that process be measured?

SPEAKER_00 12:13

So it's like a development plan, but without the corporate jargon that you see on page 17 from the employee handbook. Yeah, exactly. It's human, it's simple and it works. So let me throw a scenario at you. You've got a team member who's technically strong, but emotionally hesitant. They say things like, I don't want to mess this up. I'm not sure I'm even ready. What happens if I fail? Now, how can MBR help us here?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah. Okay, so don't push it on them. What you do is you explore. You're asking leading questions to try to change the conversation. What part of this do you feel uncomfortable with? You're asking for their input. What support do you need from me to feel that you're ready? Or even trying to make it chewable. Let's take it one step at a time. And how much more do you need in order to be successful? What you're trying to do is build confidence through responsibility, not pressure.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

If someone feels they are not ready, that is the point in time when you should be talking to the employees on the growth within the organization. Because growth becomes a partnership, not a punishment. And in my career at HR, I've been in the position of promoting people who were hesitant and pushing their skill sets in advance. On some occasions, with relatively new and modest sized companies, these sudden advancements were called battlefield promotions. But what we've been talking about throughout these podcasts is that career growth shouldn't be a single moment

Coaching The Hesitant High Performer

SPEAKER_00 13:47

in time. No. You should be discussing performance and career at the same time. One of the things we've emphasized on this podcast is how important it is to have a career review, not just a performance review. So if you help people understand that they have demonstrated the talent and skills to advance and take on more responsibility, that's the purpose of those reviews. One important tool I've seen use effectively, especially in HR, is cross-training. It gives the employee a chance to sit in another job seat for a bit. To understand the full breadth and scope of HR, people needed cross-training to manage the minutiae associated with paperwork, details, and the rules an HR department supports. So imagine a compensation specialist helping with college recruiting or a benefits professional participating in learning and development activities. The idea of cultivating growth is a critical element of developing HR staff. The challenge in the HR environment is that when a hiring freeze happens, it doesn't mean the HR department stops working. You know, there are some organizations that ask HR to continue accepting resumes and prioritize candidates so they'll be ready with those ideal candidates when the freeze is lifted. At the same time, the kinds of things you brought up, advancing people within your organization and creating cross-training opportunities, are tested through HR. So understanding the organization's limitations and being able to suggest adaptations to make cross-training work is the partnership between the organization's departments and HR. So you're helping the process, not hurting it.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Exactly. And you're trying to give people the opportunity to stretch. And cross-training, especially in an HR environment, as we talked about in the past, you're giving somebody the opportunity to see all the different segments of HR because it's not just one element, one silo. There's a breath of things that are interconnected. And until they have some seat time in those different positions, they're not as capable. So this is those times where you where you're trying to basically charge the team and seeing what actually sticks. And if you're engaged with your staff, and that's really the essence of what we're

Cross-Training Lessons From HR

SPEAKER_01 15:57

trying to suggest here in MBR, that engagement is understanding what makes them excited about the job, engaging in a job, you have to read your talent. And the most important task you have as a leader is developing your staff. Put a huge period behind that. That's the essence of what you're supposed to be doing. So in a stagnant labor market, your greatest resource isn't your budget, it's the untapped potential of your people. Utilize growth in leadership is the advantage you have, and it starts with responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

And you know the best part? Growing people doesn't require approval from human resources. Human resources encourage this practice.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, good point. And hopefully you have other ways to address the hiring freezes, and you can encourage your staff to grow within those environments. Remember, it is your job to improve their work environment and to give them those opportunities to improve. That is the core mission of being a good manager. So if you like what you've heard, I've written a book called Building Your Leadership Toolbox, and we talk about tools like this, and it's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other sites. The podcast is what you've been listening to. Thank you so much. It's also available on Apple, Google, and Spotify. A lot of what we talk about is with Dr. Durst and his MBR program. If you'd like to know more about Dr. Durst, you can find out on SuccessGrowthAcademy.com. And if you'd like to contact us, please send me a line. That's wando seventy-five periodjw at gmail.com.

Resources Book And Contact Info

SPEAKER_01 17:48

And the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Drop me a line. Tell me what's going on, what you like, and what you would like to hear about. It has always helped us to create content. Thanks, Greg. This was fun. Thanks, John. As always.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Next time.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah.