High potential or just dressed to impress?

Tue, February 28, 2017

Unlike a number of my colleagues, I’m not a massive political aficionado. I exercise my right to vote and pay attention to the key issues and that’s about it. It won’t come as any surprise therefore that I would never have any interest whatsoever in being in politics myself: all the baby-kissing, disingenuous smiles and inability to provide a straight answer to a straight question would exhaust a curmudgeon like me in no time.

That said, I found myself unusually outraged by a clip from the Commons the other day when, as a comeback to Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron decided to insult the way he was dressed. Many political commentators on both sides chipped in with their opinions about whether this was a fair assessment or just Cameron’s “Public school pretensions” coming through. For my part though, what I found disappointing was that time which should have been spent debating how our country is being run (with the merits of all arguments being considered) was in fact being spent assessing someone’s dress sense with the specific aim of belittling them.

In a broader sense though, how often are the rest of us guilty of this kind of shallow assessment of a person’s merit? There is no doubt that certain circumstances and environments require a specific mode of appearance – the suit for the business meeting, the hat for the races – but do we sometimes risk overlooking someone’s true value and potential by skirting over the surface?
This is one of the challenges that face companies looking to have a truly insightful talent strategy. Often, when managers are asked about who they consider to be their “high potentials” they’ll list people who are already doing well, demonstrating expected behaviours and generally “looking right.” This is, to a large extent, missing a trick. High potentials might not necessarily be the ones demonstrating that they are ready/able to take the next single step up the corporate ladder into management…they could instead be already demonstrating the behaviours associated with directorship three levels up. For these people “promotion” to management could be totally unappealing and disengaging. They might be the disruptors in the workforce, the mavericks, the people who don’t seem to fit the mould everyone else has come out of – in short, they could be the people to take your company into new and exciting directions, unleashing opportunities you never knew you had. You will only know what value these people can really bring by fully appreciating everything they bring.

It’s essential therefore that we take the time to really get to know the people we are working with and interact with every day – most people have things of worth for us to hear once we get past first impressions.

That’s not to say for a second that I condone tweed jackets, but at least I’d take the time to listen to what their wearer was saying.

As long as it wasn’t fashion advice

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