The Potential Paradox
My niece recently learned I had attended a private high school. Her immediate response? "Were you bad?"
I told her I had potential to be :)
Turns out, "had potential to be" is surprisingly useful for explaining all sorts of disappointing realities - whether it's your 16-year-old niece's assumptions about your teenage behavior, or when your own expectations fall short.
Disappointment happens all the time, and yet, we seem kinda terrible at discussing unfortunate outcomes. We circle directness with euphemisms and deflections instead of acknowledging what didn't happen.
I see this happen often – well-intentioned promises, enthusiasm that fades, the follow-through that doesn't follow through. "Had potential to be" covers all of it. Whether it's potential to be misbehaved in high school, potential to revolutionize an industry, or potential to hit revenue targets. “Had potential to be” is the perfect phrase for a world full of good intentions and unrealized plans.
The Parent scale of Disappointment
I'm not a parent, but I have two of them, and they have perfected the art of disappointment through a whole spectrum of expressions:
Level 1: "I'm not mad. I’m just disappointed."
Translation: You have failed me, but I still love you enough to use my indoor voice.
Level 2: "You had so much potential."
Translation: This is now a cautionary tale.
Level 3: Lowers glasses and squints
Translation: This level of disappointment requires enhanced visual assessment.
Level 4: The silent head shake and the walk away
Translation: We've moved beyond verbal communication.
Professional disappointment follows the exact same playbook - we've just replaced "lowers glasses and squints” with quarterly business reviews.
The Professional Potential Olympics
The whole business landscape feels like one big potential assessment center where everyone's measuring results against what could have, or should have been.
Accepting the gap is the hard part.
Take annual planning, for example. Those ambitious targets often require reforecasting when companies are forced to navigate changing market realities and seemingly unpredictable landscapes.
This is where I come in - to support organizations as they get realistic about what their people can deliver for the business versus what a forecast says they need to be able to handle.
The Potential Paradox
The funny thing about potential is that it's both infinite and useless until you do something with it.
I've spent years helping organizations navigate the gap between their people potential and their business reality. The companies best equipped to handle “had potential to be” are the ones that have built people operations sturdy enough to adapt when the plan is missed. They plan for how to close the gap between potential and performance by continuously growing the necessary skills to change course without losing momentum.
Disappointment isn't the opposite of success. It's a navigation system that illustrates current state relative to expected outcomes. More importantly, it provides data for where to go next.
Next time outcomes fall short of the plan, remember: You had potential to be and you still have potential to be. The difference is, now you’re armed with data to make informed decisions next time. And really? That combination is far more interesting than any plan could have been.
