Discovering and Living Our Potential
By Ric Shriver
Recently I have had some time to reflect on my career and the experiences I have had, both good and bad. My reflections helped me to see how addressing both innate potential and passion is something we need to do to function at our best.
In one of my executive human resources management roles, I was charged with recruiting, selecting, and onboarding some key executives for our finance and information technology departments. Because these areas were vital to our continued growth and success as a business, I wanted to exercise appropriate due diligence in the search process. To best determine the full potential of the finalists for these key executive roles, I engaged the help of a local industrial psychologist to administer a battery of tests and assessments for the finalists. The results of those assessments provided me and our senior executive officer with valuable insight into the selection decisions we would ultimately make. One of the measures we assessed was the conceptual and critical thinking abilities of the candidates. A high level of problem solving, critical thinking, and intuitive judgement would be required for the positions we were filling, and we needed to ensure that whoever we offered the positions to could perform at the highest levels of competence. The assessment process was a success, and the candidates we offered the positions to did meet our high standards and ultimately were able to make significant contributions to our organization. A process well determined and of significant value to our organization!
The process and tools I described in the preceding paragraph intrigued and impressed me to the point that, if I was going to continue to follow a similar process for future executive or high-level leadership roles, I wanted to experience the assessment process for myself. So, I engaged the same industrial psychologist to assess my own capabilities and to provide me with a full report on how fit I was for the executive role I was in. The psychologist’s report was both insightful and unsettling. What I discovered is that while I did possess many of the “soft” skills leaders should naturally demonstrate, my conceptual and critical thinking capabilities were determined to be “high average”. For my role, which was comparable to the other executive roles that I had been filling, a much higher level of critical and conceptual thinking potential was required. My self-image was deflated. I felt that I lacked the potential to continue to perform at the executive level. And at the time, instead of listening to and being guided by my conscience , I planned my own departure from the role that I had been successfully performing for several years – a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Choosing the best paths for our careers can be tricky. We find ourselves torn between understanding what our true potential might be and pursuing roles that far exceed what we thought we might ever be able to perform successfully. The fact is that most of us rarely can fully understand what our potential might be for certain occupations and industries. That is why seeking the guidance and wisdom of a higher power (if you are so inclined) or the sage of a respected mentor is so critical. Our conscience and/or our trusted mentor may call upon us to pursue something that is far beyond our “comfort zones” for performance. What I think is critical for us as leaders to be aware of are the obvious expectations certain roles have, the demands they may place on us, and the balance we strive to achieve between our occupations and our personal lives. Our aim should be to secure a sense of spiritual and emotional peace. Cognitive dissonance occurs when what we are perceiving and experiencing is far beyond the expectations we may have had for the roles we have found ourselves in. The altered perception creates both emotional and physical reactions that, for most of us, are considered undesirable and contrary to a sense of peace.
So, in summary, knowing ourselves, our passions, our natural strengths and limitations is critically important. But having the willingness and determination to take full advantage of our passions and natural talents is also critically important!
