4 Ways to Recognize the Hidden Potential in Your Workforce

Bestselling author and workplace culture expert Adam Grant shared a personal example of discovering hidden potential at Workhuman Live 2025, held in the Denver area. 

“I was bad,” Grant told attendees on May 13, referring to his early attempts to be a springboard diver. “I was the worst diver in my school. But I was lucky that I had a coach who saw something in me that I didn’t know I had.” 

The coach motivated Grant, who kept at it and, three years later, was much improved. “That experience made me believe in hidden potential,” Grant said. “Hidden potential is the capacity for growth that is invisible to the person.” 

Uncovering hidden potential within the workforce is a critical responsibility for today’s HR leaders. By identifying and nurturing this latent talent, HR can drive more effective succession planning, increase engagement, and unlock new sources of value for the organization, turning overlooked contributors into future high performers and leaders. 

Grant outlined four ways to recognize employees with untapped skills, leadership qualities, and innovative ideas waiting to be heard. 

Diamonds in the Rough

Grant said that recruiters and hiring managers should understand that there are people who don’t immediately stand out but may have great value to the organization.  

He recalled a time earlier in his career when he was interviewing and hiring salespeople. He received a resume “that was a horrible fit.” The interview was a “complete disaster.” But when the person was given a mock sales assignment to demonstrate skills, he excelled with creativity and confidence, Grant said. “He became the highest performer in the company. You want to hire the people with the greatest motivation to grow and learn, not just the people who seem like a perfect fit.” 

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Culture Carriers

Grant explained that culture carriers are people who “go above and beyond to defend your values, enrich your norms, and improve your practices.” 

Studying recognition data, he found that certain culture carriers — the people who are not afraid to tell leaders uncomfortable truths — sometimes don’t get recognized for their value.  

“They are vital to making the organization better,” he said. “But they are not necessarily warm, friendly, or polite. They are more skeptical and challenging.”  

He noted that not all disagreeable people are great culture carriers. “You have to understand their motives,” he said.  

Grant divided workers into four categories: agreeable givers, agreeable takers, disagreeable givers, and disagreeable takers. “There is nothing positive about the disagreeable taker, but organizations tend to reward agreeable takers, also known as fakers,” he said. “They do a lot of kissing up and taking down. Watch out for them.”   

Grant added that a company’s most recognized, beloved colleagues are agreeable givers, who say yes to everything. “The problem is, they often stay away from conflict and are afraid to rock the boat and help us get better,” he said. “The people who can unlock hidden potential are the disagreeable givers. They will give the feedback we need to hear, dish out tough love, ask the hard questions. We need to do a much better job recognizing them.”  

The disagreeable givers are the perfect culture carriers, Grant said. “They are trying to make you better. The more you recognize and reward and promote those people, the more your culture tends to improve. But in order for that [to] work, you need to create a psychologically safe environment, so people can speak up without fear.” 

Safe Spaces

Grant said that most leaders say, “If you have any suggestions or concerns, let me know,” but people don’t really know if they mean it. “Will you be too busy to hear them? Will you get defensive and bite their head off?” he asked.  

He advised business leaders to take the extra step and talk about their own shortcomings and limitations. “When you do that, you are not only claiming that you are open to feedback, you are proving that you can handle criticism,” he said. “The self-awareness to see your own weaknesses and the humility and integrity to admit them out loud shows there is nothing to lose and much to gain in seeking improvement. As HR leaders, this is a message you need to deliver to every manager in the organization.” 

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Critics Turned Coaches

Turning complaints into solutions is a great way to bring out your own hidden potential, Grant said. He described another experience earlier in his career in which he felt “massively unqualified.” The seminar he was giving went terribly, he said, and when he read through the feedback forms afterward, “they were devastating.”   

Grant asked for feedback, and more importantly, advice from his critics. He got practical suggestions and did much better in his second session. His critics had turned into coaches. 

“You get better information if instead of just asking for feedback, you seek advice,” Grant said. “Feedback is backward-looking. People tell you what you did wrong yesterday. Advice is forward-looking. They tell you what you can improve upon tomorrow.” 

It was a valuable lesson. “The very people who are criticizing you — provided that they have your best interest at heart, and they’re willing to give rather than take, provided they’re somewhat knowledgeable about you and how you’re trying to grow — are actually the best people to coach you,” Grant said.