Any Courtney in your team?


Courtney sits on her bed. It is midnight but she is not able to sleep. An adventure is about to start for her, one of those dreams that rarely come true. Dreams that are even more difficult to achieve for somebody born in Hesleden, an English town whose Wikipedia description is as succinct as “It has a village shop, which includes post office, off licence and lottery terminal”. Courtney’s life is music and she is so persuasive in her pursuit that the whole family is on board to support her in this journey, a crazy one. She is just 13.

The alarm clock is set for quite early. There is no school for Courtney tomorrow. She will travel just with her dad. Her siblings, mum and grandad (who sponsors the trip) stay behind. Just a couple of cars and three planes between her and the set of America Got Talent where she will have a 3 minutes audition. And then, two days after, this happens as she performs Hard to Handle – Otis Redding (watch the first sixty seconds, pause the video, and then watch the rest):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHVLxm8U-0

An amazing metamorphosis, isn’t it? As the tough Simon Caldwell said: “You were this shy little thing when you first came out, and then you sing and you’re like a lion. Genuinely incredible.”

Some months ago, somebody asked me whether anybody could be a leader. Courtney’s video somehow brought me back to that question. Anybody can obviously become a leader as anybody can become a football player. The question is how we, as leaders, define and decide who we feel can become a good leader. Over the years, in our organization - I don’t think this is exclusive to mine – I have observed two complementary trends. The first one is that we tend to promote to leadership positions those who are great performers in their current role, irrespective of whether it is a managerial role or not. “If he has succeeded in this role, he will most certainly succeed in the next one”. The second one is that we tend to promote those who are similar to us. Both can lead to wrong choices. I still remember a leader (no longer in the organization) who a top-notch individual contributor but a calamity as a manager.
Let’s go back to Courtney’s video. Who would have given a penny for Courtney’s success as a singer after her shy and insecure speech as intro? Would you have given her the chance or would have pressed the buzzer to let her go immediately?
Do you have any Courtney in your team that is not a fantastic performer but could be a marvellous leader?
What bias do you have when selecting leaders in the organization?

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