A team member’s gap between skill and aspiration can create quite a challenge for leaders, especially if the person lacks some degree of self-awareness.
When a team member aspires to great things but lacks the talent or potential to get there, leaders are faced with a difficult choice.
Tell the team member truthfully that they lack the talent or are unequipped to achieve their goals, or give them feedback to improve their performance, but leave their long-term aspirations unaddressed.
This seems like a choice between acting with integrity or avoiding the issue, but the dilemma is much more complex.
Leaders can be notoriously wrong about a team member’s potential or what that person can change over time.
How many stories have you heard of people being told they can’t do something by a respected leader, only later to learn they achieved their goals and more?
Leaders who deliver the news that, in their estimation, the team member lacks the key ingredients to attain their aspirations stand the chance of destroying the person’s confidence and will.
While this may ignite a fire of intensity to prove the prognostication wrong, in more cases than not, the team member will unhappily surrender their goals or find someplace else to work where people believe in them.
The better choice is to be perfectly honest without commenting on the long-term potential or innate qualities the leader may believe are missing. Separating the aspiration from the skill set required to attain it is exactly how the best leaders work through the conversation.
Good leaders describe, with specificity, the skills, experiences, and acumen that are required to reach the end goal. They avoid commenting on the lack of so-called fixed traits, such as aptitude, creativity, or dynamism, that could stand in the way.
Good leaders don’t rob people of their dreams or aspirations. They also don’t pretend they believe people can achieve things that the leader doesn’t believe they can. Instead, they leave the ability to change, mature, and transform to a person’s initiative and future development.
They stay focused on what the team member can work on now to improve their skills and close the gap. Leaders can also redirect the team member’s efforts toward roles and assignments that are more in line with their current skills. It might sound like high integrity to speak the “truth” about a team member’s potential, but that honesty presumes an all-knowing and omnipotent lens into the future.
The leader may very well be right that the team member lacks the intangibles to succeed, but their authority and influence require them to stay grounded in what the person can do now.
The problem starts with a large chasm between a team member’s skills and aspirations. Good leaders respect that divide and stay focused on the former and not the latter.
They acknowledge the aspiration but concentrate on the skills and expertise the team member must master to make progress now, even if it is a small step.
Offering a negative prediction about another person’s likelihood to achieve their long-term aspirations is not an act of great leadership.
It is the sign of a leader who believes too strongly that their views are infallible.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
