Talent Is Hidden Because Leaders Can’t Talk About It

Who Are You Missing in Your Leadership Pipeline?

A question I hear again and again in leadership conversations is:

“Who are we missing?”

Most organisations have the policies. They run leadership courses, invest in emerging leaders programs, and hire leadership coaches. But still, the pipeline feels thin. The same names rise, the same ambitious voices dominate.

The risk? Quiet achievers — those who deliver without fuss, influence without title, and might not even see themselves as leaders yet — are overlooked.

Miss them, and you don’t just lose future leaders. You weaken retention, and culture strength starts to erode.

The Real Leadership Blocker

It’s not that people leaders don’t care. Most of them desperately want to support their teams.

The blocker is this: they’re unskilled at the awkward conversations.

• Talking career path when no promotion exists.

• Talking balance and performance without condoning “slacking.”

• Talking growth without triggering fear of judgement.

This is where career–balance conversations matter. They’re wider than wellbeing, earlier than “R U OK?”, and more practical than broad-stroke leadership skills training.

Without them, even the best leadership coaching or leadership courses miss the mark.

A 2-Minute Leadership Skill Upgrade

I can’t compress a full leadership development program into 2 minutes. But I can give you two simple, powerful questions to surface hidden talent:

1️⃣ Who do you go to when something absolutely has to get done?👉 This identifies the quiet executors, already trusted by their peers.

2️⃣ Who here is influential — for good or bad? Who shapes the mood?👉 This reveals your culture carriers, whether positive or disruptive. Both matter.

Ask these questions across teams and layers. You’ll instantly map execution and influence — the backbone of any strong leadership pipeline.

Power Play: From Guesswork to People Analytics

The gold standard is to go beyond conversation and measure. People analytics give you hard data:

• Who drives execution?

• Who drives influence?

• Who holds the most valuable intel?

• Who’s at risk of leaving?

The data gives clarity. The conversations give depth. Together, they create powerful options.

Building Balance Into Leadership Development

At Workload Rebellion™, we help organisations stop missing their hidden talent. Our approach combines leadership coaching with tools that build communication skills, leadership confidence, and balance as a performance driver.

Our framework works across three levels:

✅ Macro – People analytics for clarity.

✅ Meso – Leadership workshops and emerging leaders programs to build capability.

✅ Micro – The Balance Project Hub: daily, personalised tools for sustained performance.

Balance isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s the engagement non-negotiable.

The Bottom Line

The biggest pipeline problem isn’t lack of hires. It’s missing the brilliant leaders already inside your organisation.

Equip your people leaders with the leadership skills and career–balance conversation tools they need, and you’ll unlock the hidden talent already driving execution and influence.

About Catherine Nolan & The Workload Rebellion

Cath Nolan is a multi-award-winning leadership coach, executive mentor, and 4× bestselling author on courage and leadership. She leads The Workload Rebellion, a team of culture & performance experts helping ambitious leaders and organisations put down the mental load and pick up the pace.

Working with Fortune 100s, government, and academia, Cath and her team transform balance into a performance advantage, building cultures of clarity, energy, and impact.