I spent a portion of my day catching up on old emails. This included a message from a friend who recommended this article to me: I study highly successful people for a living. Here are 11 little habits they practice every day. The paper was written by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, professor and author. Ten of the 11 tips Grant shares are about things successful people do to enhance their performance, such as seeking discomfort, asking for advice (not feedback) and teaching what they want to learn.

But one of the tips didn't seem to fit the style of the other 10. Grant's 10th habit of highly successful people is this:

They open doors for people who are underrated and overlooked. Create systems that invest in and create opportunities for all—not just gifted students or high-potential employees. A good system gives underdogs and late bloomers the chance to show how far they've come.

Grant doesn't explain why this habit helps people become more successful. So I've taken a crack at it.

One of the skills a good leader has is the ability to spot talent and potential. I define talent as skills that someone is already displaying. I define potential as latent abilities someone possesses and that, with coaching and nurturing, can be helped to mature. The underrated and the overlooked often express their talents in quiet ways and display tremendous potential, if only the right people would notice. Recognizing talent and potential is a skill that can be honed, and that can enable leaders to build stronger teams.

Good leaders are always looking for individuals with talent and potential because a high-performing team is often only one or two departures away from becoming an overwhelmed team. One of the easiest ways to recognize talent and potential is to get to know your employees: learn their names, notice who produced the work that's crossing your desk, compliment employees who achieve good results but also those who display qualities that benefit your team, provide positive and constructive feedback to inspire people to perform better, ask questions about what employees are good at and what they love to do. When you find employees who are underrated and overlooked, support them in gaining visibility (in your organization and beyond), help them turn their potential into talent through challenging assignments and coaching, and sponsor them by talking to others—such as subordinate and colleague managers—about their strengths and ambitions. In teams with insufficient resources to deliver on the work required of them (which describes many teams, I would argue), recognizing all talent and developing all potential are crucial to success.

Leaders who identify and foster the abilities of their employees enjoy positive reputations that make others want to work for them—both current and prospective employees. I remember one manager who said to me, "You make us want to work hard for you." He and his team were underrated and overlooked, working on important but longer-term files deemed by some senior managers to be less critical than the urgent and short-term crises of the day. He described two sides of the organization: the "cool kids" and everyone else who toiled in relative obscurity. Leaders who bring out the best in their employees benefit directly from their employees' higher performance. They also benefit from recommendations their employees make to others about working for them. People want to do interesting, meaningful work, but they also want to work for bosses who will help them grow.

Beyond the personal benefits to leaders of nurturing all those around them, championing the underrated and the overlooked is an altruistic act. It helps to level the playing field, giving more people an opportunity to develop their potential and display their talents and thereby make the greatest contribution to their organizations. As Grant says, "A good system gives underdogs and late bloomers the chance to show how far they've come."