Your best people may love what they do, but even Unique Ability® can become stale when there’s no new challenge. In this episode, Shannon Waller explains why Unique Ability never truly maxes out, how it deepens over time, and what you can do to keep your team’s best talents energized, growing, and making a bigger impact.

Download Episode Transcript

Show Notes:

• Unique Ability is what you’re great at, love doing, get energy from, and can keep getting better at for the rest of your life.
• Unique Ability doesn’t max out, but it can get stale when there is nothing new to learn, solve, or improve.
• When talented people get bored, they can lose energy—or start creating problems just to have something interesting to fix.
• Don’t assume that people will stay engaged simply because they’re naturally good at and enjoy their work.
• To keep Unique Ability growing, make sure it’s being used, appreciated, rewarded, enhanced, and referred.
• People need to know that the value they create is noticed and appreciated by the people they help.
• Being paid more as your capability and contribution grow is an important part of feeling valued.
• The best work helps people get better, take on new challenges, and stretch into new territory.
• A strong reputation lets people know that their Unique Ability is making a real difference.
• When someone has solved the same problem too many times, give them a more complex problem to tackle.
• If the work itself is no longer challenging, a bigger or more interesting audience may be what they need next.
• Keep asking your best people what would make their work more interesting, challenging, and rewarding.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon Waller

The Impact Filter®

Kolbe

When great people leave, it’s not always because they dislike their job. Sometimes, they leave because another opportunity better fits the future they want. In this episode, Shannon Waller shares a simple question you can ask to learn what matters to your best team members—and help make sure they don’t have to look elsewhere to grow.

Download Episode Transcript

Show Notes:

• Your best team members can become stealable when another opportunity better matches the future they want.
• Don’t assume that long-tenured, high-performing team members are satisfied simply because they’ve stayed with your company.
• Great people can experience “brownout,” gradually becoming worn down even when they enjoy their work, earn well, and have a strong reputation.
• Knowing your team members’ goals for the future helps you spot concerns and opportunities before they become reasons to leave.
• By being curious rather than judgmental when asking about a team member’s future, you can create the psychological safety necessary for them to tell you honestly what they want, what’s challenging them, and what may need to change.
• Avoid entering the conversation with an agenda because people are less likely to give you an honest answer when they feel pressured.
• Ask your key team members regularly, “If you and I are meeting three years from today, what has to have happened personally and professionally for you to feel really happy with your progress?”
• Focus on progress rather than perfection because every team member is the best judge of what would make their future more fulfilling.
• Listen for what team members want in both their personal and professional lives in terms of responsibilities, growth, compensation, travel, family, health, and work pace.
• Regular conversations about your team members’ futures can give you valuable notice of a transition and allow you to plan it together.
• Supporting a talented person’s next step, even if it eventually takes them elsewhere, can create a respectful transition and preserve the relationship.
• Ambitious people want to grow, and understanding how they want to grow helps you create opportunities that keep them engaged.

Resources:

Protect Your A-Players

Unique Ability®

How To Sell Transformation Using This One Question

CliftonStrengths®

Is keeping the peace actually holding your team back? In this episode, Shannon Waller interviews Cal Riley, author of Entrepreneurial Compassion, to explore why caring enough to have hard conversations and getting curious about others’ perspectives can build healthier teams, better results, and a more meaningful entrepreneurial life.

Download Episode Transcript

Show Notes:

• Compassionate leadership isn’t about being soft; it’s about caring enough to take purposeful action.
• The most productive leaders combine entrepreneurial drive with genuine compassion for the people around them.
• Avoiding a difficult conversation may feel nice in the moment, but it’s rarely kind or compassionate in the long run. Being nice means avoiding discomfort; compassion means caring enough to address what’s not working and help someone move forward.
• Leaders earn the right to give honest feedback by first showing real interest in people’s lives, well-being, and goals.
• Self-compassion and self-awareness help entrepreneurs learn from mistakes without letting failure define them.
• Slowing down through reflection, journaling, walking, or quiet time can make you less reactive and more present with others.
• Curiosity creates better solutions because understanding someone’s perspective comes before trying to change their behavior.
• An abundance mindset allows you to support great team members when their best next step is outside your company.
• High-performing teams value both individual capability and a willingness to put the team’s needs first.
• Compassion scales when entrepreneurs model it with their leadership team, who then bring it to the rest of the organization.
• You can’t fake compassion; people can tell whether your concern is authentic.
• One way to take action on this is to ask yourself who in your life needs more compassion from you—and consider whether you’ve been extending that same patience, understanding, and grace to yourself.

Resources:

Entrepreneurial Compassion: An Entrepreneur’s Journey Through Combat, Suicide, and the Discovery of Compassionate Leadership by Cal Riley

Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller

Inviting Genius by Matthew Abrams

Unique Ability®

CliftonStrengths®

More about Cal Riley