Leadership, Team Culture, People Development

Leadership Isn't About Being the Most Important Person in the Room. It's About Recognizing the Importance of Everyone Else in It.

I've spent many years leading people, building teams, and watching employees grow into responsibilities they never imagined for themselves. One thing I've learned: talent isn't always sitting where you expect to find it. Sometimes tremendous potential sits quietly within an organization, doing a job that doesn't come close to reflecting what that person is capable of becoming.

The question is whether leadership notices.

She Was Selling the Event. She Should Have Been Selling the Home.

Years ago, I worked with a licensed real estate agent who had primarily been assigned to make cold calls inviting people to grand openings and events she wasn't even part of.

She was intelligent, professional, personable, a great listener, and had exactly the presence you'd want representing buyers in a new home community. But she wasn't selling homes even though she was licensed.

I knew her experience. I knew how she communicated with people. I believed she deserved the opportunity to prove what she could do, so I recommended her for a sales role.

The answer was a hard no.

So I waited. When leadership changed, I brought her name forward again. This time, it was accepted.

I still remember to this day telling her she'd finally have the chance to work in one of our new home communities as an agent. She was beyond happy and celebrated the news with her friends and family. At last, she would do what she had always wanted to do.

What happened next is what stayed with me. Buyers already recognized her name. She'd spent so much time talking with people on the phone that she'd built relationships before she ever had the opportunity to sell them a home. People came to our grand openings asking for her and were disappointed to learn she wasn't there.  Well, that was no longer the case for her.  She became one of our strongest agents at getting prospective buyers prequalified, and an invaluable partner to her community manager.

Buyers loved working with her, not because she pressured them, but because she listened, educated them, and gave them what they needed to make an informed decision, rather than trying to sell them something they didn't want.

She went on to earn President's Club recognition quarter after quarter and built a genuinely successful career.

Her talent didn't suddenly appear when she was promoted. It had been there all along. Someone simply had to see it.

Why Do We Overlook the People Already Around Us?

I've thought about that question many times.

When someone new walks through the door, we study the résumé, experience, education, credentials, potential. But when we've worked beside someone for years, we unintentionally define them by the position they've always held. We see the assistant. The coordinator. The person making the calls. The person behind the scenes. And we stop asking what else they might be capable of doing.

People don't stop growing simply because our perception of them hasn't.

I've always paid attention to employees who invest in themselves: the person taking a class, earning a certification, learning a new skill, or asking for more responsibility. That doesn't automatically entitle someone to a promotion. But it deserves to be noticed.

I once knew an employee in the legal department who wanted to advance. She went to paralegal school and earned her certificate. When a paralegal position opened up within her own company, she presented her credentials.

The company hired someone from outside instead.

She eventually left and accepted a position with the courthouse, where she ultimately earned more than she would have in the role she'd originally wanted. She moved forward. The company lost someone who had clearly been telling them she was ready to grow.

Where Were We Before We Became Leaders?

None of us were born CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, directors, brokers, or managers. We had beginnings too. At some point, someone trusted us with responsibility we hadn't had before. Someone taught us. Someone let us make mistakes and learn. Someone opened a door. Someone invested in us. 

Or maybe nobody did.

Which leads to a question every leader should ask: when you finally get into a position of authority, do you recreate what was done to you or use what you learned to make the path better for someone coming behind you?

I had to struggle, so you should struggle. I had to wait, so you should wait. Nobody helped me, so why should I help you?  It wasn't easy for me, so why should it be for you?  I have student debt, and you don't, so get back in line.  You may have experience, but the leaders are looking for a bachelor's degree; even if they don't value your experience, they need it.

But why should the hardest parts of our experience become the standard we impose on the next person? We don't have to pass every hardship forward simply because it was passed to us. If we remember what it felt like to be overlooked, maybe we should become leaders who notice people. If someone once believed in us, maybe we should become the person who believes in someone else.

Experience shouldn't give us permission to repeat the past. It should give us the wisdom to improve on it.

Opportunity Doesn't Mean Entitlement

Seeing potential doesn't mean automatically promoting someone. Leadership still requires judgment. Challenge people. Give them an assignment that stretches them. Let them solve a problem. Give them responsibility they haven't had before, then watch.

Do they take ownership? Do they follow through? How do they respond when something goes wrong? How do they treat other people once they're given more authority?

Sometimes additional responsibility doesn't change people. It reveals them. And now you know something a résumé or interview never could have shown you. You may be looking at one of your organization's future leaders.

Before You Look Outside, Look Around

There will always be times when hiring from outside is the right call; organizations need new perspectives and expertise. But before starting that search, look around.

Your next manager may already be working for you. You've already seen their work ethic. You know how they handle pressure, how they treat customers and coworkers, and whether they keep investing in themselves.

When talented people repeatedly show they want to grow but keep feeling unseen, they eventually get the message: there may be nowhere for them to grow here. And when they reach that conclusion, many will leave. Sometimes that's the best career decision they ever make, but their departure should make leadership ask: why did another organization see something we had every opportunity to see?

My Reflection

Both of these moments have stayed with me for years, and they taught me the same lesson from two different directions: talent doesn't announce itself. It waits to be noticed, and sometimes it waits far longer than it should.

I think about how easily the agent could have kept making cold calls for years, unnoticed, if leadership hadn't changed. I think about how the legal department employee did everything right, invested in herself, earned the credential, raised her hand, and still had to leave to be recognized for it. One story worked out because someone finally said yes. The other worked out for her, but not for the company that let her walk away.

That's the part I keep coming back to: leadership isn't about being the most important person in the room, protecting the authority we finally earned, or making the next person struggle simply because we had to. It's about deciding what we're going to pass forward: exactly what we received, or something better.

Sometimes leadership isn't about finding great people. It's about seeing the great people who are already there.  I'm blessed and grateful to have

worked with so many amazing leaders who hold a special place in my heart.  

With respect and gratitude,

Daisy Finazzo

People First. Excellence Follows.™

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