Madeline is the textbook definition of a gifted child. She is attentive, gives well-considered answers and always goes above and beyond in her homework. If her behaviour did not already give it away, then her test results would speak for themselves.

Identifying a gifted child like Madeline is a relatively straightforward process. But identifying a talented member of teaching staff is a little more complicated. Cold, hard results are one way to measure performance, but how can leaders identify potential? What attributes should they look out for in members of their teams? And, crucially, how can they make sure that they don’t overlook talents that could be nurtured to the benefit of the whole school?

Be constantly on the lookout for talent

According to American historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough, “spotting talent is one of the essential elements of great leadership”.

Grace Marshall, a personal coach and author of How to be Really Productive, agrees. She says it’s something that school leaders should constantly be doing.

“You shouldn’t just be thinking about this when you have a recruitment drive or a position to fill. You need to do it on an ongoing basis,” she says.

Conduct ‘career conversations’

One of the best ways of identifying which of your team members has the potential and desire to move up the ladder is by holding regular “career conversations” with them, says Kim Scott, author of Wall Street Journal bestseller Radical Candor: be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity and co-founder of the organisation Radical Candor.

“Career conversations are an effective way to truly understand each person’s long-term ambitions and how their current circumstances fit into their life and career goals,” she explains.

Scott adds that this isn’t a “one and done” process. These career conversations need to occur regularly during one-to-one meetings.

“Make sure you’re seeing each person on your team with fresh eyes every day,” she says. “Just because someone is happy being on a steep growth trajectory now, that doesn’t mean they won’t feel differently in the future. In addition, just because someone is doing excellently in their current position, that doesn’t mean they should automatically be promoted to, or are even interested in, management.”

Talent takes many forms

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says that one of the joys of appointing staff is thinking about their potential long-term impact.

“So often, I’ve seen people who were quickly brilliant teachers who were then hungry to make a wider contribution,” he says. However, Barton adds that it can be hard to pin down the exact skill set that talented individuals tend to have. “Most often it’s an attitude, a self-confidence not morphing into arrogance, and a mission to make a bigger contribution,” he explains.

Teacher and Tes columnist Jarlath O’Brien finds it similarly tough to pinpoint specific attributes that talented teachers have. He tends to look for people he describes as being professionally restless or professionally curious.

“This is not the same as the person who has 15 things on the go at all times, but rather someone who takes personal responsibility for becoming a better teacher,” says O’Brien. “They read a lot, they talk to their colleagues, they collaborate and - this is the crucial one - they are critical. They don’t just magpie stuff from Twitter or Pinterest. They think deeply about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. [As] my old chair of governors said to me when interviewing, ‘Does this teacher have 20 years’ experience or one year’s experience repeated 20 times?’”

Remove all bias

One hurdle that leaders can struggle to overcome is their own unconscious bias. O’Brien thinks that this issue is not discussed anywhere near enough in school leadership, even though it is something he has witnessed at first hand during his career. He cites the example of a former colleague with whom he trained and who, he says, was a great teacher.

“We shared the same GCSE science class and his results were better than mine,” recalls O’Brien. “He spoke to the deputy head one day, saying, ‘Jarlath and a few others are all getting promoted. I’ll do something for free to get some experience. What can I do?’ He was told that he could start by getting his reports in on time. He had never been late with his reports, but the deputy headteacher had decided, because he looked like he belonged in a boy band, that he was the kind of teacher that was late with their reports.

“He left teaching, got an MBA and is now in industry. A real loss to the profession. Whereas, I am sure that I benefited early on in my teaching life because of the way I dressed and spoke.”

Always see the best in people

One of the most important skills that all good leaders need to have is the ability to see the best in individuals and be alert to and aware of their transferable skills.

“It’s always thrilling when you recognise potential and strength in those who don’t yet see it themselves, but with your encouragement, support and constructive challenge, they can achieve more than they thought they were capable of,” says leadership consultant Jill Berry. “It’s also important that we don’t pigeonhole staff - as with the pupils we teach - and fail to recognise what they could accomplish in the future because we can’t see past mistakes they may have made in the past.”

So, to become better at spotting talent in your team, you might have to take a long, hard look at yourself. If leaders really want to identify their most gifted members of staff, they will need to remove the blinkers that could be blinding them to people’s potential.

Simon Creasey is a freelance writer

This article originally appeared in the 12 June 2020 issue under the headline “Britain’s got talent in its staffrooms - but how do you spot rising stars?”