The views expressed in this article represent the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, its staff, or its board of directors.
What if the most valuable person on your team is the one you’ve already underestimated?
Every day, leaders make decisions about people based on resumes, degrees and certifications. Those credentials matter. They show hard work, technical expertise and professional accomplishment. But they tell only part of the story. They reveal little about how someone thinks, adapts, builds trust, solves problems or helps others succeed. And more often than not, those qualities create the greatest value.
I learned that lesson through a phone call that changed my career.
Years ago, Janet, a senior vice president at the Tennessee Valley Authority, called to recruit me to join
her organization. My immediate response was, “I’m not an engineer. I don’t have anything to contribute.”
She paused before answering. “I have plenty of engineers,” she said. “I need someone who doesn’t think like one. I need someone who brings a different perspective and challenges our assumptions.”
Until that moment, I had allowed my degree in government and politics to define the limits of what I could contribute. Janet saw something I didn’t. I accepted the position and spent the next 13 years working alongside engineers in operations. It was one of the most rewarding chapters of my career — I learned that perspective can be just as valuable as technical expertise.
Too often, organizations hire for credentials, promote for tenure and assign opportunities based on past experience. In doing so, they overlook people whose greatest contributions come from the very things that rarely show up on a resume — critical thinking, relationship building, communication, judgment and curiosity.
Consider the credentialed lender who understands every detail of mortgage finance but struggles to earn clients’ trust. Or the experienced engineer who excels at solving technical problems but wrestles with leading a team. The resume may explain how they arrived, but it rarely predicts how they will perform.
The problems businesses face are rarely simple or linear. Solving them takes people who can weigh every angle — the finances, the regulations, the reputation, the culture, the downstream impacts — before they decide. That kind of thinking is hard to spot on a resume.
The best leaders do more than spot talent. They create the conditions where the talent already in the room becomes visible. They become curious about how people think, what experiences have shaped them and what perspective they bring to the conversation.
The next time you’re in a staff meeting, look around the table. Think about the person whose
background doesn’t fit the traditional mold or whose potential you’ve quietly discounted. Ask yourself
one question: What might this person see that the rest of us are missing?
When was the last time someone on your team surprised you? If it’s been a while, the problem may not be a lack of talent. It may be that you’re still looking for it in the places you’ve always looked.
This is the work I do today. A year ago, I stepped away from executive life and launched Growth Development & Performance, LLC, a coaching and leadership development practice. I work with leaders and teams, helping them cut through the noise so they can see clearly — their people, their challenges and how they want to lead. Much of it comes back to what you just read: the value already sitting at your table, waiting to be recognized. If that’s a conversation worth having, I’d welcome it. You can reach me at [email protected] or gdpllc.net. No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest talk about what you’re trying to figure out.
