Your Next Leader Is Already on Your Team - A Smarter Approach to Leadership Development

 Struggling to fill leadership roles on your team? The answer might not be hiring - it might be developing. In this episode, learn how to turn your current team into confident leaders through intentional leadership development. 

Have you ever looked at your team and thought… we just don’t have anyone ready for leadership?

Not because they’re not capable.
 But because no one feels quite ready yet.

This is one of the most common conversations happening in organizations right now. Teams are looking outside for leadership… while overlooking the potential already sitting in the room.

And to be fair, this isn’t something most teams are doing wrong.
 It’s just something most teams haven’t been shown how to do intentionally.

Because leadership development doesn’t happen by accident.
 It happens when we slow down long enough to see people differently.

In this episode, I’m sharing two real conversations I’ve had with executive teams recently. Both were facing leadership gaps. Both assumed they needed to hire.

But what shifted everything…
 was realizing they already had the people.

They just needed a more intentional approach to developing them.

Key Takeaways

• Why leadership gaps often come from a lack of development, not a lack of talent
• How to identify leadership potential on your current team, even if no one feels ready yet
• What intentional leadership development actually looks like in real teams

Do you want help developing a Leadership Development strategy? 

Email: desiree@intentionalaction.net or visit intentionalaction.net 

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Transcript

Desiree (00:01.262)
The conversation that I have found myself in multiple times over the last few weeks is how do we fill the leadership gaps on our team? And when we get down to it, it's not necessarily that there isn't potential on the team. It isn't the fact that there's not people interested in leadership. It's not even the fact that they haven't tried to develop their leaders. Sometimes it's a lack of intentionality on how to best develop them.

So today we're gonna go through a couple of these conversations that I've had with different executive teams, different ways that we can go about seeing if there is potential on our team for leadership, how we can develop those individuals into leaders.

and how to really have the right mindset around what happens if they end up leaving. How do we not just say, okay, I guess it wasn't worth it and stop the development process of future leaders to come. So if this is something that you've thought about, how do we fill that leadership gap on our team, then you're gonna wanna stick around because honestly, I can't believe this all happened at once, but I'm really excited to tell you about it.

Desiree (01:08.494)
So if you've ever questioned how to more intentionally develop your leaders so that you have a leadership pipeline from within, so you're not constantly searching for other people outside of the organization, and so that the people within your organization can feel empowered and believed in, that you know that they can be in leadership if that's something they desire to.

So welcome back to You're the Boss, What. I'm your host, Desiree Petrik, and our goal here is to help you lead yourself and your team with more confidence. So lean in and let's get started.

Desiree (01:56.534)
A lot of the work that I do is, you know, kind of random. I will give keynotes and breakout sessions and workshops within teams and workshops for large groups of people. But one of my absolute favorite things to do is to sit down with a team of executives and ask them kind of hard questions so that they can get down to the bottom line of where are our challenges? How do we actually come about?

Desiree (02:29.432)
How do we overcome those challenges? And how do we really move forward with intention and not keep having the same conversation over and over again? And my absolute favorite is when that team says, don't go easy on us, dig deeper, go harder. Because I think we just get stuck in a rut sometimes. And I think it takes an outside person being willing to be a little bit more.

aggressive, as I would like to say. So that's my favorite thing to do. But there's a conversation that has been coming up recently over and over again about

We just don't have the leadership potential on our team or I wouldn't know where to look for it or this person Wants to be a leader and I don't know how to tell them that they're not ready for it. So I want to go over just a couple of scenarios about Real teams that I've worked with in the past couple of months and tell you what I told them so that you can have an idea of how you can go about developing some of your leaders

So scenario number one, I'm working with a nonprofit leader. I've already done multiple workshops with them over the last couple of years. I've gotten to know some of their employees and I am really excited they asked me back to come and do some work specifically with their management team.

Now their management team is really small. So I said, do you have any up and coming leaders? Do you have any team leads that although they're not technically in a supervisory position yet, you know, maybe they could come and join us. We can invest in them their time. We're going to invest some things so that they feel empowered and know that we believe in them. And the leader just kind of said, well, no, I don't really have anyone like that. I said, OK, do you want to? I mean, this would be a great opportunity to start to see some of that potential.

Desiree (04:11.436)
And she said, I don't really know if anyone has that potential. This hiring pool has been a little tighter lately. We're not getting the same kind of candidates as we have in the past. I said, yep, I 100 % get that. That is across the board. I've been hearing that from different companies. But I said, do any of your employees have leadership aspirations? And she said, well, I don't know. So I said, step one, first thing we need to do is have a conversation.

Desiree (04:56.312)
So scenario number one, I'm working with this nonprofit team. I've done multiple workshops with their entire company top to bottom over the last couple of years. And they've invited me back this time to work specifically with their management team. I was really excited. I love this company. I've worked with them for years even prior to starting my leadership development company.

And I was surprised when she said that there was only a few, I think it was four or five managers that would be participating. And I said, well, I know you have a rather large company. Are there any team leads or any potential leaders that you would want to include? Just letting them know that you're investing your time and energy and grant money in them, et cetera. And she said, we don't really have anyone that I would pinpoint.

and I said, okay, do you have anyone that you could potentially see in that role someday in the future?

And she still kind of was like, I don't know, maybe. So I said, first things first would be to ask. Ask your current managers, is there anyone on the team that has leadership potential? They go above and beyond. They are willing to get uncomfortable. They are great with feedback, not only giving it, but receiving it. Is there anyone that would be in that space? And I said, from there, you could ask the individuals if they have any leadership aspirations.

I think a lot of times we just assume that people do or don't based on the way that they've approached us about it in the past.

Desiree (06:26.092)
And I think you might be surprised at some of those individuals. Some people are just really high performers and have no leadership aspirations. And some people don't work as hard as they could because they think they would never be eligible for leadership. Now, I think someone could make the argument, and people have made the argument to me, well, if they're not trying hard now and they're not putting in all the effort now, why would I give them the opportunity for leadership?

there's a lack of belief in ourself. There's an imposter syndrome that I think comes with these goals that we have in life. And sometimes it can feel not only overwhelming, but somewhat defeating to know that our goals are far out of our reach. And I have seen employees who, you know, years later have made great managers that you would have never guessed had leadership aspirations because you didn't see it in their day to day. But the moment that someone said, if you

would you know just reach a little further and take on a little more responsibility and be a little more confident in what you're doing you could be a great leader someday and Just that little spark of inspiration just that little spark of belief from someone that they admire and someone that leads them Was the thing that pushed them to do more to take on more responsibility to actually do something with it

So what I'm trying to get to with here is don't discount individuals simply because they maybe haven't shown it yet. Having the conversation in your one-on-one meetings with people about what are your goals? What are your aspirations? Do you want to be here long term? Do you want to have a leadership role someday? If they say yes, this is the part where you now get to put a little bit more responsibility on them. You get to hold them even more highly accountable.

because they've told you what they want, you are now in a position to help them. As the leader, it's partially your responsibility to help them get what they say that they want. So holding them even more accountable to that is gonna be helpful.

Desiree (08:32.651)
So essentially this leader and I left it at, go and have these conversations with your current managers about who they can see with the potential. Then if you feel confident going to the other people on your team and asking them, does anyone have leadership aspirations? What does that look like for you? What would you want to learn? Where are you lacking confidence right now that you feel you could gain it? Providing those development opportunities in my opinion is an employer's

responsibility and that might be a hot take because some people will say they need to do it on their own and absolutely individuals need to be reading and listening and learning and etc on their own but I also think that it is a company's responsibility to help potential leaders get to that point.

So that's scenario number one, the end of it. I'm still working with this company, so I don't have any final thoughts for you on that. Maybe I'll come back in a later episode and kind of give you an update. But the second scenario, I was working with a team in agriculture and it was an executive team. I had done multiple workshops with their entire team. So I knew all the employees really well.

This was our fourth meeting, second as an executive team. I had already kind of been a little more assertive. They asked me to to dig deep and to ask really hard questions and to not be. I think what they actually said was, don't be nice to us, help us. So I had already had this with them and we were sitting around a conference room table. And they said this individual, let's call him Jeremy. Jeremy wants to be a leader really bad.

He's said it to us, he has told us he wants to be a leader, but he just does not have the soft skills. He does not have the people skills needed. He's a really hard worker. He does a good job in what he does, but he is kind of sarcastic. He is a little bit assertive. He isn't always kind to people. He swears a lot, which, you know, if that's part of the culture, that's fine, but in this case, it wasn't.

Desiree (10:39.662)
So I said, have you told him that those are the things that are getting in the way of his leadership goals? And they said, well, no, we haven't. We have talked to him about these things, but I don't think that we've told him that it could potentially get in the way of what it is that he wants. And they said, he's pulling away now more than ever. I said, well, walk me through that scenario just a little bit. Tell me about why you think he's pulling away. A year ago, this individual,

really wanted an open position, a management position on the team. And he was beat out by someone older with more experience, more knowledge, better people skills, et cetera. And he was very frustrated by that. He rallied, he stayed part of the team, he continued to do good work, but his people skills didn't really improve. And now it's a year later, and this manager that originally took that position is no longer at the company. And so the position is technically open again.

So I asked, would you consider hiring him for this position now? And I said, well, no, his people skills haven't improved. And I just sat back and I always say, I love silence because you can really start to see the wheels turning in people's heads. And I said, you guys wanted me to be tough with you. So I'm going to ask you the question. Did you ever tell him that in order to get said management role when it came available again, these are the things he would need to work on?

and they all looked around the table and looked at each other and they said, no, we never said that to him. I said, imagine where he would be now in an entire year of being able to work on those things. He would have had two options had you told him a year ago, you did not get this management position because of this. However, if you work on these things, we think you would be a great leader.

He could have said, it's not worth it. I don't want to work that much harder. I don't want to work on my people skills. So I'm going to just say, you know, screw it. I like my job. I'm going to just stay here. That would be fine. Or he could have said, I really want this leadership position. I am willing to do what it takes. This company believes in me and I'm going to do what I have to. And I'm going to ask for feedback on whether or not I'm getting better. And I'm going to read some books or listen to some podcasts about how to have better people skills.

Desiree (12:57.964)
And he might have been ready for that position. A year is a long time. A lot can be learned in a year. He might have been ready for that leadership position had he been told what needed to happen in order to be qualified for it. So I was not trying to make this leadership team feel any which way. I just wanted them to understand that.

In order to help this employee get what it is that he said he wanted, they have to be willing to have a hard and uncomfortable conversation with him. Otherwise it will never get better. And this employee is going to start to feel resentment for the fact that you keep passing me up. I've been a loyal employee. You keep passing me up for this thing that I tell you I want. Why? You're not talking to me.

And they said, that's exactly what's happening. He's starting to get frustrated. So we ended on needing to go and have this conversation with this guy. He is by no means like out of opportunity for leadership, but they know that in order to get him to where they want to, they're going to have to have this very uncomfortable conversation with him.

And I said, the best part about this is on a regular Tuesday, if he were swearing or if he said something sarcastic that hurt someone's feelings, it might be kind of strange to be like, hey, that was uncalled for. You really shouldn't say that. Am I saying you shouldn't do that? No, you probably should as a leader. It's your responsibility to make sure we're following through on the culture we say we want. However, I know that that doesn't always happen. It's really hard just in a random moment to hold someone accountable in that way. However,

if they had had the conversation with him a year ago, that this is what's required for you to get what you say you want, which is this leadership role.

Desiree (14:39.98)
then every single time he were to go against what it is that you have instructed him to do, you could pull him aside and say, hey, you know, the situation that just happened, here's what happened, here's how you responded to it. In order to see that you're making progress to get this leadership role that you want, this is what would have needed to happen. Here's a scenario of how it could have looked instead. Do you have any questions? Do you understand that? It's.

One million times easier to hold someone accountable to something they know they're being held accountable to. If we never set expectations, if we never set an actual bar for what we expect from someone, it is not realistic for us to expect them to reach that goal. We can't hold someone accountable to something that they don't know they're being held accountable to.

Desiree (15:36.94)
In case you can't tell accountability is one of my favorite words and I have so many thoughts on accountability. We're going to continue talking about that over the course of the rest of this podcast life. But when it comes down to how we can develop our leaders from the inside, how we can give our leader, our employees who want leadership this opportunity is to set the expectation that we have for them, tell them we believe in them and that if that's what they want someday, we will help them get there and then actually do the work of

developing them, including them in trainings, offering to let them go to a Dale Carnegie class or, hey, Selfish Plug, one of my accelerator courses. How can we make sure that we are investing in them in a way that's actually going to get them to where they say they want to go?

One of the most important leadership qualities for a company, in my opinion, is developing our leaders from within. And a lot of that just comes down to intention of asking the right questions, intention of developing those leaders with the skills and the tools and the knowledge that they need, and then holding them accountable to what it is that they say they want until they say they no longer want it.

I was getting ready to close this out and I was feeling really good about that passionate ending there. But I wanted to, there's one more thing that I forgot to say, because as we were in the midst with this agriculture company, they were saying, know, Jeremy really, really wants this leadership position. He's not ready. We had that whole thing. But then there's this other guy, we'll call him Billy. Billy is ready for leadership. He is fantastic. He does all the things. He goes above and beyond. He's amazing to people. He's so responsible.

and they're just baffled that he doesn't want a leadership position. And I said...

Desiree (17:34.83)
and they were trying to figure out what would we need to do to get him to want a leadership position. And I kind of sat there for a minute and I was like, why would you want someone who's a brilliant mechanic, who goes above and beyond and does everything that's needed and truly loves their job and has no desire to leave said job and isn't complaining about anything?

Why would you want to take a great mechanic away from doing what they love and putting them in a position where they don't get to do that as much anymore because now they're managing people. They may start to hate their job. They may start to resent their job and then they might leave to go find another mechanic position.

Some employees are just that. They are amazing employees who are going to be loyal and love their job and be good humans and good teammates with no leadership aspirations. And that's okay too. Sometimes it's just a matter of us as a management team, as a leadership team, as a company to know what it is that our employees want and to make sure that we are treating them in a way that knows that we appreciate them, whether they have goals and aspirations for more or whether they are

just happy as a clam to be doing what they're doing. Neither of the situations should warrant more investment of energy and gratitude.

but at the same time, they are going to look a little bit different in how we invest in things like going to different courses and such. So maybe we'll talk on that on a different episode about the benefits that we can give without seeming like we're being unfair to certain individuals. But I just thought it was a really interesting juxtaposition of one employee really, really wants it and isn't ready, and one employee is totally ready and really, really doesn't want it.

Desiree (19:21.728)
something to think about going forward. But I hope this was interesting to you. I might bring in some more of these scenario type discussions, these scenario type lessons, because they do kind of come in clusters. For some reason, the themes keep popping up. And this month's theme apparently was how do we build our leadership pipeline from within. So I hope this was helpful to you. If you have someone on your team who is needing some development in their leadership, if they want to be a leader someday and they're just not

quite there yet, send me a message on LinkedIn. I have a group called the Intentional Leader Accelerator. Our current cohort is full with the full 12 individuals, but we will be running this course again. And I would love to talk with you about what it would look like to get them developed in their leadership, not only on how to manage a team, but how to lead themselves as well. So until next time, thank you so much for joining me. If you wouldn't mind, if you love this podcast and you haven't yet, make sure you hit the follow and subscribe button. If you would leave a

five star rating and review. That is what helps leaders find this podcast and I would be eternally grateful. But just remember that leadership is a privilege and it's also a really big responsibility and you're the boss now. So what are you going to do with it?