As leaders, we are tasked with helping our employees develop to their fullest potential. It’s a win-win that benefits the employee, the company, clients and the overall culture and morale of the teams they work on. I am often asked how to identify leadership potential within a team, or how to evaluate employee capabilities and developing high-potential employees. There are always standouts in a group, but there is more to the story. Here’s a truth we don’t often name in business: How you see your people is how you treat them. And how you treat them is how they show up. This isn’t just philosophy—it’s backed by research.
The Study That Changed How We Think About Potential
In the late 1960s, researchers Rosenthal and Jacobson conducted a now-famous study: Teachers were told that certain students in their classroom had been identified as having unusually high potential (based on a test). In reality, those students were randomly selected.
By the end of the year? Those “high potential” students outperformed their peers academically.
Why? Because their teachers—believing they were gifted—treated them differently. They gave them more attention. Asked deeper questions. Offered more encouragement and opportunities to stretch their skills. Held higher expectations. That belief shaped behavior—and behavior shaped outcomes.
Dive deeper into how we think about fulfilling our potential with this book.
What This Means for Leaders Today
We may think we’re “just being realistic” about someone’s capability. But what if our version of realism is really a quiet limiter?
In leadership, your mindset becomes your culture: If you see someone as coachable, you coach them. If you see someone as resistant, you manage around them.
When you see your team as strategic thinkers, you bring them into the big conversations. If you see them as task-doers, you don’t.
And the most dangerous part? People almost always sense your belief—or lack of it—even when you don’t say it out loud. They won’t say it, but you’ll see it in how they’re showing up. Their behavior will mirror your level of belief in them.
If helping employees develop to their fullest potential, the danger here is being short-sighted with what their fullest potential might be. When ‘realism’ or doubts creep in and become that quiet limiter, we are limiting their potential. Limiting what their growth can be, what their contributions might be, and how they show up and treat their colleagues.
Check out these 4 ways to build a culture of engagement.
Try This Leadership Reset
In your next team interaction, ask yourself:
- “What assumptions am I bringing into this conversation?”
- “If I believed this person was a rising star, how would I show up differently?”
- “What small shift in my belief could unlock their next level of performance?”
Take it further with this guide to leadership development that works.
Leadership isn’t just about performance management. It’s about perception management—starting with your own. Because how you see your people is how you treat them. And how you treat them is how they show up. Choose your lens wisely.
Keep leading forward,
Bobbie Goheen
