A thriving team drives a thriving business. But unlocking your employee’s full potential takes more than good intentions—it requires strategy, insight, and the right tools. Research backs this up: a Gallup study found that employees who are given opportunities to challenge themselves and grow are proven to be more engaged with their work, leading to a 23% increase in profitability.
But maximizing team potential isn’t always straightforward.
For one, you need to identify high-potential (HiPo) employees, those with drive to raise the bar for those around them, but how can you do that accurately? And you can’t neglect training and engaging with employees outside of the HiPo group either, especially when turnover is costly, and 94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company that provides relevant training.
Why Maximizing Team Potential Matters
Engaged, high-performing teams have a real, measurable impact on business performance. A meta-analysis by Microsoft found that organizations committed to supporting employee engagement performed twice as well financially compared to those that overlooked it.
Poor engagement and an inability to reach full potential may be due to poor leadership and a lack of development opportunities. Leaders who aren’t attuned to the needs of their employees or don’t understand the benefits of training and development can cause big problems for businesses as their teams underperform, and turnover rates rise. To maximize team potential, you need to equip your leaders with the knowledge and tools to recognize every employee’s potential and guide them toward growth.
That’s exactly what Thomas’s psychometric assessment tools are for. Our data-driven tools, built on years of rigorous psychological research and expertise, are designed to help you maximize team potential. They also identify high-potential employees, helping you grow your leadership pipeline and strategically boost the performance of others around them. Research from Kellogg Business School found that sitting within a 25-foot radius of a high performer can increase performance by 15%.
8 Key Strategies to Develop Your Team’s Potential
So, how can we take action and maximize team potential effectively? Here are 8 key strategies leaders and HR teams can use to get the most out of every employee.
1. Set Clear Goals and Expectations
To successfully meet a goal, every employee needs to understand exactly what it is, the steps required to achieve it, and their specific role in the process. Their role should align with project and department objectives, which should, in turn, be clearly linked to company goals.
It’s also important to define what success looks like. Measurable KPIs help provide every individual with a clear idea of performance expectations. These should be agreed upon and monitored during regular performance appraisals.
2.Encourage Skill Development
Just because someone is struggling with something doesn’t mean they lack to ability to improve. Training and development are key to maximizing potential. Organizations that support their employees through structured learning and professional development programs, such as workshops, online courses, or mentorship opportunities, benefit from productive, motivated employees with up-to-date skills.
Behavioral and aptitude assessments help determine what skill development should look like. These tests identify skill gaps and reveal how different employees learn best so their training can be tailored for best results.
3. Provide Ongoing Feedback and Coaching
Regular feedback ensures progress stays on track and that everything is headed in the right direction. Positive feedback, which reinforces that employees are doing well and encourages them to keep pushing forward, is a joy for any manager to deliver. Constructive feedback, however, can be more challenging. This kind of feedback can feel negative, which can impact morale. However, by fostering open and honest communication at all levels, constructive feedback can become a tool for growth rather than criticism.
360-degree feedback assessments rely on transparent communication. They’re an effective means of regularly assessing progress by gathering feedback from employees at all levels in a structured way. The results of these assessments and the subsequent conversations can be particularly helpful in maximising team potential in soft and interpersonal skills.
4. Support Collaboration and Teamwork
To maximize team potential, you need to consider every aspect of teamwork. While individual performance may drive progress, a united team will push your company even further. You should consider not only the teams that make up various departments and functions, but also how they work cross-functionally. Leaders should encourage employees to learn more about what their peers in other functions do and how they can support one another to do better and be more efficient. You should look out for opportunities for cross-departmental and cross-functional collaboration, always encouraging honest communication and resisting falling into siloed ways of working.
When it comes to individual teams within departments, finding balance in working styles, personalities, and communication approaches is key. Social and emotional team dynamics can make or break a team, so investing in behavioral assessments helps ensure the right balance for better collaboration.
5. Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning
Learning and development shouldn’t be about going to one or two workshops a year just to fulfill arbitrary CPD hours. Instead, your organization implement strategies that encourage continuous learning to benefit both the employee and the company long-term.
Knowledge-sharing through mentorship and cross-functional collaboration is a valuable way of sharing insights from experienced employees so others can upskill and avoid pitfalls. Other upskilling initiatives, such as online learning programmes that employees can log in to on a regular basis, are an effective way of demonstrating commitment to continuous learning, as these platforms provide employees with on-demand learning opportunities that fit their schedules.
Personalized learning pathways are more effective than generic ‘one size fits all’ training, especially when the student is given the chance to share what they’re interested in learning about, leading to increased enjoyment of what they are learning and greater engagement. Assessment tools, particularly aptitude and behavioral tests, provide insights that can be used to tailor learning to suit individual learning styles and innate abilities.
6. Delegate Responsibilities Effectively
Great leaders are great delegators. But what does effective delegation look like?
First, effective delegators are good at identifying strengths and weaknesses, and they assign tasks accordingly. They’re clear about their expectations and provide everything that is needed to get the job done.
Some leaders are naturally good at identifying their team’s strengths, but to really maximize team potential, we recommend using psychometric assessments. The results of these assessments may reaffirm what was already known of a team member, but they may also surprise. Either way, the data is there to support leaders with their decision-making and in getting the most out of their employees.
7. Recognize and Reward High Performance
Research by Gallup found that employees who receive ‘high-quality recognition’ are 45% less likely to leave their jobs. Other research supports this finding and also shows that employees who are recognized for their contributions are more engaged, and morale levels are higher, which is exactly what you need to maximize team potential.
One-to-one recognition is impactful, but reward systems that publicly celebrate achievements take things to another level. Sharing successes creates a blueprint for others to follow, as they can see what someone else has done well and the steps they took to achieve it, and can emulate that. Knowing they were rewarded for this effort provides extra motivation too.
Rewards systems should always remain fair, unbiased, and focused on motivation. No one should be able to game the system or win based on popularity. Effective rewards might include monetary bonuses or salary increases, additional time off, or professional development opportunities. To ensure inclusivity, the criteria for earning recognition should be clearly defined and adjusted based on role and seniority, so that every employee has a fair path to achieving it.
8. Address Performance Issues Promptly
The work of developing teams may not always run smoothly. There may be times when performance issues become clear and they must be addressed directly before they affect productivity or morale.
Data-backed insights, such as seeing how someone is performing against their KPIs, can help with these conversations and highlight what changes are needed. Behavioral assessments can be utilized to better understand coaching needs. It’s rare for an employee to underperform on purpose, so it’s vital to do what you can to support them toward improvement. That starts with understanding them better as an individual.
The Role of Leadership in Maximizing Team Performance
Leadership buy-in is essential for maximizing team performance. Leaders must commit to the long-term process of identifying potential and supporting employees in reaching it by implementing the strategies we’ve discussed.
Different leaders naturally go about this in different ways, which we refer to as their their leadership style. Thomas’s workplace personality assessment can be used to better understand the natural leadership style of each leader in your organization, providing scores across predefined areas such as conscientiousness, risk, and ambiguity. By combining this data with insights from employee psychometric assessments, organizations can identify areas where leaders may need to adjust their approach to better support their teams.
Leaders who are willing to adapt their style to meet their team’s needs foster a more positive and open work environment, one that drives engagement, boosts productivity, and empowers employees to reach their full potential.
These assessments are invaluable when it comes to identifying and developing future managers, ensuring a strong leadership pipeline.
Unlock Your Team’s Potential with Thomas International
To truly maximize team potential, we need to get our leaders and employees on board and implement our eight strategies in a structured, thoughtful way. These strategies transform the way teams work by promoting honest feedback, continuous learning, and cross-functional collaboration. While this isn’t a quick fix approach, organizations that are committed to the process will be rewarded with improved engagement, higher productivity, and lower turnover rates.
As part of the process, organizations will also identify high-potential employees and future leaders, securing long-term business health.
Start by getting your senior leadership team (SLT) on board. Share the research findings with them and prepare them to make use of Thomas’s talent assessment tools for leadership and team development.
Ready to take that first step and start developing high-performing teams? Contact our experts today.
