Karen Hester had no thought of becoming a manager when she started a cleaning job at Adnams, the British brewer¹ based in the seaside town of Southwold. “I wanted evening work, so my children wouldn’t miss out during the day,” she says. Twenty-six years on, she runs Adnams’ entire operations and is about to join its board.

在英国海滨小镇索斯沃尔德(Southwold)，当卡伦•赫斯特(Karen Hester)成为当地酿酒商Adnams的一名清洁工时，她从未想过自己有一天会当上经理。“我当时想上夜班，这样白天就有时间和孩子们呆在一起了，”26年过去了，她现在负责Adnams的全部运营工作，并且即将加入公司董事会。

Her potential was spotted² after she became a purchasing clerk simply bec¬ause she needed to change her hours when her children started school − “there had been no complaints about the cleaning”. In her new role, she met Andy Wood, now chief executive but then supply chain head. Im¬pressed by how she project managed the purchase of his company car, he asked about her background. When he discovered she had qualified³ to drive heavy goods vehicles as a 17-year-old army recruit, and gained two promotions⁴ in record time, he persuaded her to join the transport division and became her mentor⁶.

赫斯特在担任采购员后，有人发现了她的潜力。当时她之所以换岗位，仅仅是因为她的孩子开始上学，她需要改变工作时间，“对清洁工作没什么抱怨的。”在新岗位上，赫斯特遇到了安迪•伍德(Andy Wood)。现任Adnams首席执行官的伍德当时是供应链主管。赫斯特为公司采购汽车时的项目管理方式打动了伍德，于是他询问了赫斯特的履历。当他得知，赫斯特还是一名17岁的新兵时就取得了重型货车驾驶证，而且以创纪录的时间两度获得晋升，他说服赫斯特加入运输部门，并亲自担任她的指导。

“Karen wasn’t an obvious model for a future business leader, but she displayed a tenacity⁷, an inquisitiveness⁸ and willingness to learn that marked her out,” Mr Wood says.

“卡伦并非未来商界领袖的典型榜样，但她展现出的坚韧不拔、求知欲和学习意愿让她脱颖而出，”伍德表示。

Individuals with underused talents — even if not on the scale of Ms Hester’s latent abilities − exist in all walks of life. But many organisations struggle to judge people on their true merits.

就算没有赫斯特那么大的潜能，各行各业都有才能没有得到充分发挥的人。但很多企业很难评判人们的真正长处。

First, talented employees with unconventional backgrounds may have to overcome the unconscious bias⁹ of superiors to reach senior roles. Even if we try to be “neutral judges”, says Francesca Gino, a professor at Harvard Business School, we tend to view people with whom we feel some affinity¹⁰ — whether because of education, gender¹¹, ethnicity or some lesser¹² connection − more favourably¹³.

首先，拥有非常规资历的有才能的员工，也许必须克服上级无意识的偏见，才能晋升到高级职位。哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)教授弗朗西斯卡•吉诺(Francesca Gino)说，就算我们试图做一个“中立的裁判者”，我们还是更倾向于认同与自己有一些相似之处的人，不管是教育、性别、种族还是一些比较次要的关联。

Likewise, as institutions, businesses may create barriers for individuals who do not fulfil stereotypical¹⁴ expectations. A case in point is fast-tracking graduates over other employees. Executives “must be bright enough” to do the job, as John Mervyn-Smith, chief psychologist at UK-based talent consultancy eg. 1,observes. But he adds that qualities such as energy and drive, emotional maturity¹⁵, ability to solve problems and learn quickly − at which Ms Hester excelled — are often better predictors of successful leadership than academic qualifications.

同理，作为组织的企业或许会给那些不符合固有期望的员工设置障碍。研究生比其他员工晋升得更快，就是一个明证。总部设在英国的人才咨询公司eg.1的首席心理学家约翰•默文-史密斯(John Mervyn-Smith)说，高管“必须足够聪明”才能胜任工作。但他补充称，与学术背景相比，诸如干劲、情感成熟度、解决问题和快速学习的能力等品质——这也正是赫斯特所擅长的——往往更能准确地预示出某个人可能成为成功的领导者。

What can businesses do to find potential that may be hiding in plain sight, especially if the individuals concerned may not think promotion⁵ is for them and so do not put themselves forward?

企业该怎么做才能发掘藏身在眼皮底下的可造之材？尤其是如果这些人或许不认为自己是合适的晋升人选，所以没有毛遂自荐的话。

Creating a variety of routes into senior roles helps. Having previously¹⁶ concentrated on honing the leadership skills of executives near the top of the organisation,Vodafone has introduced a career development programme, known internally as “Retail¹⁷ Spine¹⁸”. The initiative spots promising¹⁹ shop floor employees and equips them with skills and experience they will need to become general managers and ad¬vance into the top jobs.

开创多元化的高级职位晋升途径能有所帮助。沃达丰(Vodafone)原本专注于磨练高级管理人员的领导才能，后来引入了被公司内部称为“零售骨干”的职业发展项目。该项目旨在发现一线员工中的可造之材，帮助他们获得成为经理以及晋升最高职位所需的技能和经验。

Candidates nominate themselves or are put forward by a manager to be as¬sessed for potential to think strategically, manage through inf¬luence and adapt to change. “By taking people out of their day-to-day role and looking at them from a broader perspective, we aim to spot potential early and pull people up through the organisation,” says Jenni Heyes, who runs Vodafone’s employee training and development operations.

自荐或者经经理推荐的候选人将接受评估，内容包括进行战略性思考的潜力、通过影响力管理的能力以及适应变化的能力。主管沃达丰员工培训和发展的詹尼•海斯(Jenni Heyes)表示：“通过让人们脱离日常角色，从一种更宽广的视角来观察他们，我们的目的是及早发现可造之材，并在组织里提携他们。”

Another approach is to encourage employees with thoughts on how to im¬prove the business, wherever they are in the pecking order, to pitch for re¬sources to put their ideas into action. At L’Oréal, 33-year-old James Taylor has spent three years managing a £4m IT project to improve planning and forecasting processes. He had the idea while working as an account manager in the UK consumer products division and entered an internal innovation competition. Now he is about to begin a global role, at director level, at L’Oréal’s The Body Shop. “The project gave me exposure to senior managers across Europe . . . and [an opportunity to show] what I was capable of achieving,” he says.

另一个方法是，不管员工职位高低，鼓励那些对改善业务有想法的员工争取资源把自己的想法付诸实践。在欧莱雅(L’Oréal)，现年33岁的詹姆斯•泰勒(James Taylor)花了3年时间管理一项总投资400万英镑、旨在改善规划和预测流程的IT项目。他在担任英国消费者产品部门客户经理时萌生了这个想法，于是参加了公司内部的创新比赛。现在他即将在集团旗下的The Body Shop担任全球总监职位。他表示，“那个项目让欧洲各地的高级经理们注意到了我……也让我（有机会）展示自己能够胜任的工作”。

When businesses talk of leadership diversity, most think of gender and ethnicity. But organisations can also be dominated by personality types. Studies suggest there are far fewer introverts²⁰ in leadership positions than extroverts²¹, and the more senior the role, the more extroverts predominate. But according to research led by Whartonbusiness school, quiet, reflective managers in charge of entrepreneurial colleagues tend to produce better results than outgoing and assertive²² managers. The quiet¬er bosses, the 2010 study found, were more receptive to their team’s ideas than the extroverts, who did most of the talking in the group.

当企业谈到领导层多样性的时候，大多数人想到的是性别和族裔。但企业其实也可能被特定类型的人一手把持。研究表明，担任领导职位的外向型人才比内向型人才多得多，而且职位越高，外向型人才的比例就越高。但是，沃顿商学院(Wharton business school)在2010年开展的一项研究显示，管理具有创业精神的员工时，沉稳内敛的管理者往往比外向自信的管理者效果更好。该项研究发现，相比于在团队中滔滔不绝的外向型领导者，较为沉稳的管理者更善于接纳团队成员的想法。

To spot the potential of quieter personalities²³, businesses may need to undertake a more searching approach. Debbie Hance, head of business psychology²⁴ at Head Light, a talent management software provider, observes that companies already gather 360-degree feedback from subordinates to pinpoint²⁵ areas where managers need to improve. However, such intelligence could also help organisations identify staff who ex¬cel in the quieter, nurturing²⁶ aspects of leadership, such as mentoring²⁷ peers, that sometimes go unnoticed. “There are certain strengths, such as empowering others, that people display to those below them more than they do to their bosses,” Ms Hance says.

要发现这些较为沉稳的人的潜能，企业或许需要采取一种更具洞察力的方式。人才管理软件提供商Head Light的商业心理学主管黛比•汉斯(Debbie Hance)表示，企业已经从下级那里得到全方位的反馈，从而可以精确确定管理者需要改善的地方。然而，此类信息同时也有助于企业发现那些具有沉稳和培育性领导力特质的员工，比如指导同事等特质有时会被忽视。“某些长处，比如激励他人，人们更多是展现给职位低于他们的人、而非他们的老板，”汉斯说。

Observing peer group dynamics²⁸ can also be instructive. Tom Mendoza, vice-chairman of US-based data management and storage business NetApp, says he looks for “the go-to guys” to whom others turn for advice.

观察同级员工的动向也可能具有启发意义。总部设在美国的数据管理和储备企业NetApp的副董事长汤姆•门多萨(Tom Mendoza)说，他在寻找大家遇到麻烦时都会向其咨询的“靠谱之人”。

In the early 2000s, the habit led him to put sales rep Joe Santamorena in charge of the New York office’s rapidly expanding financial salesforce, even though his immediate²⁹ bosses argued against the appointment. They fretted³⁰ that he had never managed anyone, or hired staff.

在本世纪初，门多萨的这种习惯让他指派销售代表乔•桑塔莫雷纳(Joe Santamorena)主管纽约分公司快速壮大的金融销售队伍，尽管桑塔莫雷纳的直接上司们反对这次任命。他们担心，桑塔莫雷纳从未管理或者招聘过员工，恐怕难以胜任新职位。

But Mr Mendoza was convinced that Mr Santamorena was a natural leader after observing him spontaneously mentoring less experienced reps. Today Mr Santamorena runs NetApp’s commercial sales group for the Americas. “His one big negative was that he’d never hired anyone, so [the challenge] was to give him the help that he’d need not to fail on that particular task,” Mr Mendoza says.

但是，在注意到桑塔莫雷纳自发地指导经验较浅的销售代表后，门多萨相信他是一位天生的领导者。如今，桑塔莫雷纳主管NetApp全美范围内的商业销售队伍。“他的一大短板是他从来没有进行过招聘，所以（挑战）是，为了让他不会在这个特殊任务上失败，给予他所需要的帮助，”门多萨说。

Having taken an unusual route herself, Ms Hester says she keeps a weather eye open for untapped potential, taking particular care not to typecast people. “I never assume the warehouse-worker in blue trousers and a blue top isn’t capable of doing the same role as the person in the shirt and chinos,” she says.

赫斯特说，由于自己就是走的不同寻常的职业之路，因此她会随时留意未经发掘的可造之材，尤其注意不要固化人们的角色。她说，“我从不认为，穿着蓝裤子和蓝上衣的仓库工人不能干那些穿着衬衫和斜纹棉布裤的人的工作”。