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How to Recognize an Emerging Leader
"Leadership is doing good things through people."
Diane Amundson
Can anyone become a leader? I have been asked this question multiple times in my nineteen years of working with organizations. In order to give my response, I must first define leadership as "doing good things through people." I chose to use the phrase, "good things" in my definition because there are many examples of leadership that accomplished horrific things through people like Adolph Hitler and the Holocaust.
Can anyone become a leader? Yes, but for some, the journey will be easy, while for others, very difficult. It depends on how hard you are willing to work at it. This is why as a parent or manager, you want to nurture and train those that show potential at an early stage of life or work.
So, how do you recognize an emerging leader in your children, grandchildren or employees? I could create a list of 20-30 characteristics or traits but I found that most of these fall into four unique categories that I share below. While an emerging leader may not be competent in all four of these traits, the more of they have, the greater their success will be:
- A drive to complete tasks or achieve goals. This is sometimes referred to as a problem solver. This person can be dogged in their pursuit of solving a problem and is willing to try new ideas or take calculated risks towards accomplishing their goals.
- Works effectively with others. While in pursuit of their goal, they are not stepping over others but rather listening and caring that others achieve their goals as well. The emerging leader is able to articulate the problem or goal and rally others towards wanting to achieve it or solve it.
- Just enough organizational skills. This refers to the ability to keep track of information in a way that allows easy retrieval of that information in pursuit of accomplishing goals or tasks. They are able to organize and align their own strengths as well as others towards accomplishing the task or goal.
- Picks up on concepts quickly. They are a fast study with a good dose of curiosity on how to improve themselves and the processes involved in solving a problem or accomplishing a goal. They seek out learning opportunities that will help them grow and improve.
What might be the signs of someone who is not an emerging leader or who is not ready to take on more responsibility at your organization?
- Completing tasks while stepping on others. This is someone who realizes the importance of accomplishing a task or goal but is unaware of how they may be effecting others while in pursuit of that goal. This person will need soft skills training or nurturing in empathy. While it is difficult to develop this skill in adults, it can be done.
- Making excuses for not achieving goals. This person tends to blame everyone else for the reason why a goal was not achieved. Examples of this include blaming other departments, the economy, the wrong tools, etc. This person will need training in humility and accountability.
- Erratic behavior. I have seen many employees have all the characteristics of an emerging leader but blow up at simple struggles or other people too easily. Otherwise known as a "hot head' this person may need to use your company employee assistance plan to help resolve the anger issues.
- Disorganized. A leader needs to be able to follow through and accomplish tasks with others and this can be extremely difficult if the emerging leader continues to lose items or overpromise and under-deliver because they are overcommitted. There are numerous training opportunities in organizing your home and work life and some leaders are able to delegate these tasks to others.
While these lists are not exhaustive, they are a great start to recognizing the traits we want and do not want in those that will lead our families and organizations now and in the future. | 
