Identifying and nurturing leadership potential is more critical than ever in today's diverse and dynamic workplace. Bias in the selection process can undermine efforts to build an inclusive environment, potentially perpetuating systemic inequities and hindering diverse perspectives. This issue becomes particularly pressing when selecting leaders, whose influence shapes organizational culture and performance. To address this challenge, it is essential to adopt strategies that mitigate bias and ensure fair evaluation of leadership potential.
Dr. Kimberly Janson is CEO of Janson Associates, a talent and organizational development company, and was named a Top 10 Thought Leader, Top 10 Executive Coach in 2021, and Top 10 Inspirational Leader in 2022.
Dr. Melody Rawlings is a business professor, doctoral chair, and director of the Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations at Northcentral University.
Their new book is: Determining Leadership Potential: Powerful Insights to Winning at the Talent Game.
In this episode, Kimberly and Melody explore the keys to assessing leadership potential, focusing on methods to uncover and mitigate bias during the selection process. By leveraging objective criteria, structured assessments, and insightful questioning, organizations can better identify and promote leaders who are both competent and high-potential leaders.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Identify the three challenges of determining leadership potential.
- Discover why assessments play a crucial role in identifying leadership potential and explore the valuable assessment resources available.
- Uncover the key predictors of leadership potential and learn why job performance doesn't indicate good leadership.
"This is honestly where a number of women get limited in terms of their trajectory, the problem is that performance is the most commonly used indicator of potential. It's just a mistake."
- Kimberly Janson
Valuable Free Resource:
Topics Covered:
02:04 - The approach they enacted to come up with the book, Determining Leadership Potential
04:13 - The challenges of determining leadership potential that were uncovered in the research
09:20 - Applying the 'Leadership Blueprint' framework to identify four main areas critical for determining leadership potential
10:59 - Limitations of this method: Observation of motivation
13:29 - How observation is a valid method for assessing leadership potential and a part of a multi-method assessment
17:49 - Additional assessment tools and resources in addition to observation
19:31 - Why job performance should not be the primary criterion for leadership potential
23:00 - Addressing and mitigating bias in the selection process
25:54 - Targeted questions and assessment for screening bias in candidates
28:25 - How to get a FREE book, Determining Leadership Potential
30:46 - Q: What question would we offer people to think about? A: If not you, then who is going to change it? If you think it might be you then figure out what you need to do in order to create this change.
Key Takeaways:
"90 plus percent of folks in all three studies relied on observation as indicators of their criteria. But the reality is people aren't trained behaviorists." - Kimberly Janson
"Someone who is really negative, or caustic, or extremely conservative, or very self-promoting; takes credit for themselves, so detail-oriented that they can't elevate to see the bigger picture. If you have those in extreme, you are limited in your leadership impact." - Kimberly Janson
"You absolutely can learn capabilities that help you look for things that tell of high intelligence or no derailing personality characteristics." - Kimberly Janson
"But you are most successful when you have a multi-trait, multi-method assessment process of which observation is one and then balanced with other resources to help you with that." - Kimberly Janson
"Performance isn't a predictor, because what you have at this job, at this level, is different from what you need at this next level." - Kimberly Janson
"One thing that was obvious was because of all these variations, it's clear why so many people are mismatched and are in leadership roles when they shouldn't be." - Melody Rawlings
"If those who are selecting the leaders are not trained, or do not have the skillset to, or framework, to be assessing leadership skills, then how can they place the right people?" - Melody Rawlings
Ways to Connect with Kim Janson and Melody Rawlings:
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:
- Website: https://www.sarahebrown.com
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/knowguides
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahebrownphd
- To speak with her: bookachatwithsarahebrown.com
