People who strive to release their full potential and achieve their best in every endeavor do so for many reasons. Altruism, self-fulfillment, reward and recognition, and curiosity are a few of them. The most ennobling, innovative, and profitable of human accomplishments often result from the efforts of such individuals.

Why should organizations focus on eliciting the best in employees?

Achieving one’s true best is not a condition for living. Citizenship, social order, freedom, and even employment are not based on it. People do not lose citizenship or other constitutional rights because they put forth average effort, and average performers (especially when performance is compared to the potential of the performer) are the mainstay of many organizations.

Besides, maximizing one’s potential is tough. It requires a level of focus, discipline, and commitment that makes even the most resolved of people ask themselves why: Why should I set a higher-than-expected goal for myself? Why should I earn a second or third degree or cross-train when I already have a satisfactory job? Why should I ask for more challenging assignments? Why should I exert myself more than what is needed to get by?

When workers overcome inertia, doubt, fear, ignorance, contrary beliefs, and hindering behavior and commit to giving their all—i.e., when they discover and develop their talent and repeatedly perform at their peak level—they take their organizations to new and unprecedented heights.

In addition to the corporate reason for striving to achieve one’s best, employees should do it for themselves. Rene Daumel highlights one of the many gratifications of exploring one’s full potential in the statement below:

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again…so why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen (Mont Analogue, 1952).

Changing belief and behavior

Life, in general, is made up of marathoners and sprinters. The vast majority of people are marathoners. They stay in the race and run long distances at a time. However, they never speed up to their full potential. Doing so will imply bending a rule, breaking out of the mode of a marathoner, or not finishing the race. Sprinters, on the other hand, give their best effort in short, calculated distances. Thereafter, they stop to rest, rejuvenate, and plan another all-out performance.

When practiced consistently, the following principles will enable organizations to make a few sprinters out of the vast pool of endurance runners.

Principle 1: Cultivate a vision. With eyes closed, many people would dare to walk across a room. However, few would venture to cross a busy street with their eyes shut. Now, imagine crossing an expressway blindfolded. Similarly, a person without a vision can only go so far or take so much risk; perhaps as far as she or he can go leaning on others.

Just as organizations cannot function effectively without a vision, individuals might never attain their best without one. A vision is a dream or picture of the future that motivates us to act. The stronger the vision, the more it stimulates our minds, engages our bodies, and causes us to engage in activities that actualize it.

Management can assist employees in envisioning themselves in the organization over a period of time. Where do they see themselves in three, five, or seven years? How do their professional and personal goals mesh? How do their visions align with the vision of the organization? In addition to exploring possibilities, this process is effective in assessing whether employees are in the right job and organization.

Principle 2: Discover and invest talent. Every worker has a talent; i.e., what she or he is best at. Through coaching and guidance, and by appropriately assigning responsibilities, management can assist in discovering and developing talent. Employees in positions that enable them to effectively utilize their talents add the most value to the organization.

Principle 3: To live is to learn. Achieving one’s potential requires embracing lifelong learning. Continuous learning prepares us for the future, for the unknown. If the Wright brothers were alive today and refused to innovate or acquire the most up-to-date knowledge on building airplanes, the airplane they built today would not be significantly different from the one they built decades ago. They most likely would not find a market for it.

Management should provide opportunities for and reward continuous learning. That said, employees have ownership of their education and must determine to seek and avail themselves of opportunities to learn and grow. As Sir John Eccles, Nobel Prize winner, once observed, “Humans have an unlimited capacity to learn. Unlike computers, no human brain has ever said: ‘Hard drive full’” (1972).

Principle 4: Find and fix your blind spots. Flaws that people are unaware of can become a constraint in their efforts to maximize their potential. Organizations can help workers illuminate their blind spots by creating an environment that facilities structured, nonjudgmental, and developmental feedback.

Principle 5: Focus on the future. Many managers are adept at giving feedback. Analysis of past action and behavior is conducted to identify errors, why they occurred, and how to correct them. This principle invites management to encourage staff to not only invest time in analyzing and correcting the past, but to spend as much time, if not more, exploring alternatives that could lead to better results in the future. For every mistake, sub-par performance, or obstacle, ask employees to come up with at least three solutions. While nothing can be done to change the past, there’s always an opportunity to define the future. The article “Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback” by Marshall Goldsmith (Leader to Leader, Summer 2002) is useful in understanding this perspective.

Another way to encourage future focus is to challenge employees, on a yearly basis at a minimum, to suggest ways of improving work processes, systems, and outcomes.

Principle 6: Take daring but calculated risks. Action is the only path to uncovering, refining, and testing the limits of one’s talent. Management can assist by encouraging risk-taking among staff. Challenge them with new tasks and higher levels of responsibility. Create and foster a non-punitive culture. Reward and recognize creativity and innovation.

Principle 7: Cultivate sincere, trusting relationships. Although each individual is responsible for envisioning and enacting his or her future, achieving it requires participation by others. Knowing that people are more likely to assist other people they know and trust, strong relationships can be instrumental in climbing the rungs on the ladder toward reaching one’s potential. Management can assist by building trust and respect in teams.

Principle 8: Surround yourself with mentors. Life is full of trailblazers. Even for a novel vision, chances are someone has accomplished something similar. If you can’t have a mentor-protégé relationship with the people who best represent your vision, listen to what they say or have said. Organizations can facilitate mentoring by providing an enabling environment. It’s a cost-effective employee development approach.

Principle 9: Be content and grateful, but don’t become complacent. Celebrate every success and milestone. But don’t relent or stop. Instead, constantly strive to surpass previous accomplishments. Management can assist by systematically increasing staff responsibility. As much as possible, give staff opportunities to acquire new skills and take on increasingly complex challenges.

Principle 10: Support others in their efforts to maximize their potential. Every person is striving to make something of his or her talent. Lend a helping hand. While you shouldn’t expect something in return, your kindness and generosity will likely open doors for you. Managers can help in this regard by emphasizing the team concept. Your staff will learn how to assist others if they function effectively as a team.

While there might be other useful ideas for enabling individuals to achieve their best, these ten principles have the potential to improve worker satisfaction, enhance skills, increase creativity and innovation, and ultimately, improve the bottom line.