Managers: Mind Your Employee's Energy Profiles

Still waters run deep.

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A client recently revealed an interesting paradox she discovered during her years in senior leadership positions in big corporate: the confidence vs competence trap.

We all know the type. Confident, loud and proud, seemingly present and always surging forward, the extrovert. We also all know the other type. Quiet, timid and shy, seemingly reserved and existing in the shadows, the introvert.

Fortune favours the bold, and unfortunately so do many companies. In a world of ever more complex performance metrics, a world of seeing and being seen, employees with a high visibility energy profile slide into the competence category all too easily. After all, we are emotional beings, and even the most sophisticated thinkers among us cannot help but shape their opinions of others predominantly based on tone of voice and body language, rather than the merit of the spoken word.

This kind of unconscious bias can be dangerous. Not only to the employees it overlooks, but to the talent development of the organisation itself. Attracting talent is costly. Retaining talent is costly. Retaining talent that isn't talent at all (high confidence - low competence) even more so.

Let's all open our eyes. Loud does not equal competence. Quiet does not equal a lack thereof. It is about paying attention, counteracting our unconscious biases, and being mindful that different energy profiles require us as managers to prepare a different stage for our employees' talents to shine. Put the work in now and reap the rewards of satisfied and motivated talent later.

Let's go get it,

Nikki and Tom