# Unlocking Hidden Potential in High-Performance Teams

**Podcast:** LEITWOLF Podcast - Leadership, Führung & Management
**Published:** 2026-08-27

## Transcript

Why are they asleep?
What could I do to awake the full potential?
Because very few people come to work intending to be average.
And perhaps there are no sleepers after all.
Perhaps there are only people that no one has believed strongly enough in yet.
Hello and welcome to today's Light Wolf Leadership Podcast episode.
Great that you're on the show again and welcome to a...
A conversation that hopefully inspires you to find hidden potential in people and in your team.
Today, I'd like to talk about a question that many leaders occasionally ask themselves, often only in private.
The question sounds a bit like, why do some employees never really realize their full potential?
Why is that?
Almost every team has them.
People who are reliable, who get their work done, but rarely take an initiative proactively.
They deliver what's expected, yet seldom surprise you.
People who could clearly do more, but don't.
So the real question then is not, do I have sleepers on my team?
The real question is, why are they asleep?
What could I do to awake the full potential?
Because very few people come to work intending to be average.
Everyone I know has a profound, at least basic motivation.
That is why they come to work every morning, no matter whether they come into the office or they work from home office.
So there is a fundamental motivation.
But there are a few problems in this context that I have encountered throughout my corporate career, 25 years, and also now throughout the 13 years that we've been together here with the team, consulting, training, coaching people to become better leaders.
So what have I seen?
One element I've seen is we confuse current performance with future potential.
Many leaders judge their people by what they deliver today.
But performance is the result of many factors.
Clarity of expectations to begin with.
Are we sure that we gave our people clear expectations in terms of outcomes, timings, qualities?
Another area that could influence performance is motivation, self-confidence, the environment that we are creating around them.
Maybe it doesn't really maximize performance yet.
Leadership has a tremendous influence on people's performance.
Potential, on the other hand, describes what someone is capable of performing, what someone is capable of becoming.
And almost every employee, probably including people on your own team, have far more potential than they realize themselves.
Throughout my career, I've repeatedly seen average performers become top performers.
After getting a new leader.
Not because they changed.
But because their leadership changed.
I've been fortunate to work for several leaders.
Who believed in me.
Sometimes more than I believed in myself.
One particular personal example.
While I was working as a marketing director.
In a global consumer goods business in Germany.
I had a great boss.
Er hat mich in zwei Wochen, in sechs Monaten.
Und wenn du interessiert bist, listen zu ihm.
Er hat eine sehr große Professionell-Management- und Leadership-Karriere.
42 Jahre in einem Unternehmen, starten an der Jahre 21 Jahren, und in den letzten sechs Jahren, er hat als Global CEO und Global Chairman von Procter & Gamble.
Und ich war glücklich genug, dass das Mann als mein direktes Boss für drei Jahre.
Der Name ist David Taylor.
Und wenn du möchtest, wenn du ihn möchtest, was er die Essence von guter Leadership ist, dann bitte join in to Lightwolf Podcast Nummer 154, entitled, I Can't Yet.
Leadership Lessons Learned von David Taylor.
Er strongly believes in die Power of Growth Mindsets.
Und, ein Jahr später, I reflected again about how he influenced me, how his leadership behavior raised my performance.
And that episode is Lightwolf Leadership Podcast, episode 215, entitled Expect and Encourage, inspired by David.
Because in fact, that's all he did.
He just expected, he raised the bar.
Er hat mich gezwungen, er hat mich gezwungen, er hat mich gezwungen, er hat mich gezwungen, er hat mich gezwungen, er hat mich gezwungen und gewonnen, bis ich mich gezwungen, bis ich mich gezwungen, bis ich mich gezwungen, bis ich gezwungen, bis ich gezwungen, bis ich mich gezwungen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen, in der gewissen The power of leading is from a completely different field.
And now I'm outing myself a bit.
Yes, I am a football maniac.
I've played for about three decades when I was a teenager and a young adult.
And when I was 14, I was a decent kicker.
And at the time I was in the U14 of a club that currently is suffering.
At the time they were in the first division in Germany, even won the cup twice.
Their name is Fortuna Lisslendorf.
I played for their U14 and I was surrounded by top talent.
Just great players all around me and top coaches.
In year one, my coach was a gentleman who had performed 593 times in the German Bundesliga.
He even made it to the national team.
And I just learned a ton.
And year two, I was coached by a man who was center in the back.
Bayer Leverkusen, also an outstanding team.
So two exceptional coaches and great people around me.
I had a great, motivating, highly performing environment.
And that just challenged me.
And it unleashed potential more, much more than had I stayed in the club where I was before.
And reflecting in hindsight, this was probably the one time in my life that I grew the fastest in anything I have ever done.
As a result, Waking up my full potential, also sometimes receiving a bit uncomfortable feedback to make me wake up.
So a second area of opportunity that I detect when I look around in business is that we keep giving responsibility to the same people.
Under pressure, many leaders naturally tend to delegate to their strongest performers because they can rely on them.
They know it's going to work.
Und in der short-term, das ist für die leaders.
Aber in der long-term, das ist sehr gefährlich.
Ihr bester人, die sich overloadieren.
Everyone else, die sich unter-schallenged verletzt.
Und das ist genau warum die Sleepers sind in der ersten Zeit.
Nicht nur weil sie sie nicht mehr ability haben, sondern weil sie nicht mehr opportunity haben, weil sie nicht genug Verantwortung haben, weil sie nicht mehr Verantwortung haben, weil sie nicht fully verletzten.
Und der dritte und finalen Erwartung der Erfahrung in meinem professionell career ist, dass wir viel zu viel manage und viel coachen.
Viele ein-on-one meetings revolve around tasks, status updates, deadlines, problems, aber rarely around development.
Die wichtigste Leadership ist nicht Leadership Question in unseren regularen One-on-ones and Joe Fixes is not, how is your project going?
A much more impactful question instead is, what could you take on that you don't quite feel ready for yet?
That's an area where real growth begins.
So what can you do?
Let me share a few suggestions for you to consider how to unleash full potential out of your people.
Number one.
Look not just for performance, but for potential.
Every week, choose one employee and ask yourself, if I truly believed in this person's potential, what responsibility would I give her or him today?
Then give them exactly that responsibility.
Give them that opportunity.
Not someday.
Now.
Dare it.
Do it.
People rarely grow before responsibility.
They grow through responsibility.
If you have the courage to give it to them.
So suggestion number one.
Look not just for performance.
But for potential.
And then trust in it.
Idea number two.
Delegate development.
Not just work.
Average leaders.
So, suggestion number two.
Delegate development, not just work.
And idea number three for you to reflect on.
Don't just have performance conversations, but also potential conversations.
Regularly ask your people questions like, where do you believe you have untapped potential?
Which of your strengths are you using too little today?
What would you be willing to take on if you knew you wouldn't be punished for?
Oder, wo soll ich mehr als Leader supporten und wo soll ich nachdenken?
Diese könnten Fragen zu considerieren, um neue Gespräche und neue Möglichkeiten zu machen, um die Leute zu entwickeln.
Ihr wird wahrscheinlich bemerkt, wie oft ihre Antworten sind besser als Ihre Antworten und besser als ihre Antworten.
One of the greatest compliments I've ever heard about a leader was the simple sentence, quote, she pumps talents, unquote.
I'll never forget this.
This was a number of years ago, and we were awarded to support about 140 middle managers and senior leaders to become stronger versions of themselves, stronger humans and stronger leaders.
Two and a half years, 140 people.
A series of workshops.
Half of them were outside Europe.
The other half were Europeans, mainly Swedes.
Up in Gothenburg and up in Munich.
I'll never forget it.
And in one of those workshops, suddenly one participant raises her hand and says, yeah, I need to share something, Stefan.
I want to talk about Agneta from Stockholm.
She really pumps talents.
And I went like, what?
I paused the workshop.
turned to that participant and said, could you kindly repeat that, please?
She said, yes, Agneta from Stockholm.
She's pumping talent.
Whoever we give in to her team will leave that team about two years later much bigger and much stronger.
That's the kind of skill and behavior that I'm advocating.
Believe in these people.
Make them grow.
Believe in them more than they believe in themselves, like Agneta in Stockholm.
By the way, imagine if someone said that about you, what that would mean about you as a leader, growing other people into full potential.
And if you yourself were interested to become the leader you're capable of, to become the best version of yourself, who consistently develops yourself and also others into full potential, then consider joining Lightwolf Leadership Academy.
This is a one-year compact leadership education with both online access to my best tips, advice tools, and six times a year group life coaching with me, where people bombard me with their toughest questions on those six competencies that define leadership, six competencies that every leader needs to master.
Interesting to you?
Have a look in the show notes.
And if interesting, just book it.
und join Lightwolf Academy.
Ich freue mich auf welcoming Sie als neue Mitglieder.
Und meine finalen thoughts für heute.
Throughout meine Karriere, ich habe den Privileg zu arbeiten mit vielen, vielen Leaders und jetzt als Consultant, Trainer, Coach und Keynote Speaker, arbeiten mit almost 13,000 over den letzten paar Jahren.
Die sehr besten haben eine Sache in common.
Sie sind nicht nur Talent Scouts.
They are talent developers.
They don't just see the person standing in front of them today.
They see the person that she or he will become two, three, four years down the road.
That's the skill they have and that's the behavior they show.
And they led accordingly.
And perhaps there are no sleepers after all.
Perhaps there are only people that no one has believed.
strongly enough in yet.
I wish you every success in discovering these people in your environment and in believing in them more than they believe in themselves.
Chances are, both they and you might be richly rewarded.
Thank you for listening and I look forward to welcome you again in the next episode of Lightwolf Podcast.
Thank you and see you soon.