What is Potential?

Pretty Woman is one of my favourite movies.  I know, not very 'leadership-like', but I love a Cinderella/My Fair Lady story complete with knight in shining armour (and not bad looking either)  I like the story because it is about finding your way -- not the way most of us choose, but you know, stuff happens.

There is a line that Kit says that seems to stick with me "Carlos says you have a lot of potential" - it's the word potential that really hits me.

And when we apply this to our lives at work and our leadership, we too, have a lot of potential.  What we do with it is the key.  Polish it up, stretch it to new ground, learn new skills, listen more, enable more...it's all about how we develop ourselves, but more importantly about how we develop those around us.  There is a lot of potential out there.  As leaders, we can harness it and make change happen for the better.