How to spot the MVP employees and future leaders in your company

Identifying the top performers and future leaders in your company is critical to your company’s success.

Having a workforce that is high performing and motivated will push your company to the next level much faster than hiring a lot of apathetic and lackluster employees. That's why it is important to identify those top performers and ensure that you nurture them as much as you can before it’s too late. So how do we detect these bright spots in the company? If only there were some kind of checklist of skills and personal qualities that these employees had in common... Oh wait, there's one!

We've helped hundreds of companies build their dream teams, and here are the top 5 MVP traits we noticed.

1. Communication skills.

Being able to communicate effectively is one of the most common skills that all top performers have in common. This is a skill that is almost always in the job description. However, some employees take this a level higher. Excellent communication skill is quite simple to notice in an employee based on the way they communicate their ideas, vision and strategies. Is the language they use clear to understand? Does it inspire? And, are they able to relate to their colleagues? Once these guys take leadership roles, they will have the right communication skills to delegate tasks and motivate others in their team.

2. Interpersonal skills

This skill to communicate well goes hand in hand with the second common quality, that is, interpersonal skills. Being able to relate to many different people enables an individual to make connections and build networks. In today’s environment, just knowing stuff may not be enough to be considered leader material - you must also know people as well. This will ensure that your company will be in the care of well-connected performers and leaders who can negotiate good trade and build relationships.

3. Decision making

The third common trait is decisiveness. Decision making is one of the most important qualities that leaders should have. These people are not afraid to step up and make decisions when it’s necessary. This is a sign of confidence in their own skills and experience. This is important to take into consideration because you have to allow those people some freedom to make decisions as well. If you don’t allow them to have input and decisions, they will feel that their opinions and decisions don’t matter and may choose another organisation instead.

4. Ambition

All leaders, pretty much without exception, have the fourth item on our checklist, ambition - Being ambitious is an essential indicator as it means that an individual will be keen to progress their careers and constantly develop themselves, and feel dissatisfied if they sense stagnation in their career. If they are ambitious, it shows that they are motivated to improve themselves which, in turn, benefits your organisation massively. Ambitious people are never afraid of new challenges because they know that it will help them progress in their careers.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” - John F Kennedy.

5. Quality over quantity

Our final indicator is quality. A top performer must always ensure that they produce top quality work. They prioritise quality over quantity. Some people get work done fast, but is that really quality work? Some business owners today make the mistake of accepting quantity over quality work. However, you should never accept anything less than quality work because it is what sustains a business in the long-term. If you detected any of these qualities in your employees, do everything in your power to keep them! Alternatively, check out another blog of ours which covers the 5 signs that it’s time to quit your job, so you can save your top performers before it's too late.