Most leaders have met somebody they quietly decided was content where they were.

They are good at the job. They do more than the role asks for. But they do not raise a hand, they do not bring you the idea, and when you offer them something bigger they turn it down and give a reason that sounds like a preference. So you file it under a lack of ambition and you stop offering.

That read is wrong more often than most of us would like to admit, and the article Chris wrote for Inc. is about how he learned that the hard way, from both sides of it.

Where the piece starts

It opens with a story from his college years. An arrest over something that felt harmless at the time, a charge that ran in the local paper, and a question on every job application afterward asking about criminal history. For years he assumed that question was where each process quietly ended, so he applied for less than he wanted and went into the ones he did apply for already braced for a no.

He was capable of more that entire time. He just did not believe he was allowed to go get it. That gap between what somebody can do and what they believe they are permitted to reach for is the whole subject of the article, and it turns out to be far more common than a personal story would suggest.

What the numbers said

While writing You Are Capable of More, Chris put a set of questions to his LinkedIn and Facebook audiences and more than two hundred people answered. It is a self-selected group rather than research, and the article says so plainly, but it is worth noticing that these were people who already read leadership material.

Ninety-two percent said they are capable of more than what they are currently doing. Asked what was standing in the way, the most common answer was not time, not money, and not their manager. It was self-doubt. That finding did not create the book. It reinforced what the book already argues.

Why motivation is the wrong tool

When somebody is not performing at the level you know they are capable of, most organizations reach for motivation. A contest, a bonus, a better speech at the annual kickoff, a redesigned incentive structure. Every one of those assumes the person needs to want it more.

Usually they already want it. What they are missing is any evidence that they can do it, and belief is not something you can buy on somebody’s behalf. It gets built a slower and much cheaper way, through a leader who is willing to be the first person in the room to say out loud what they think somebody is capable of.

The story he uses to make the point

The article turns on somebody who worked in credentialing at a company Chris led years ago. She was sharp, dependable, and doing more than her role required, so when a sales opening came up he told her she should apply.

She said no. Not because she did not want it, but because she did not think she was ready. It took several conversations before she applied, and what finally moved her was not encouragement in general terms. It was a specific promise about the training and support she would get, and that she would not be left to figure it out on her own.

She took the job and went on to win awards for her sales performance. The detail Chris keeps coming back to is that he had to ask more than once. Had he accepted the first no, he would have filed it under a lack of ambition and never found out he was wrong, and she would still be doing good work in credentialing while he believed that was the ceiling of what she wanted.

The practical problem underneath it

Self-doubt and disinterest are indistinguishable from the outside. Both look like a quiet person who does not volunteer, a good idea that never reaches you, or a stretch assignment declined with a reason that sounds like a choice.

The cost of guessing wrong compounds. If you read hesitation as disinterest you stop offering, and the person reads that as confirmation of the story they were already telling themselves. Nobody involved ever finds out what was actually true.

The closing line of the article is the part worth carrying into your next one-on-one. The potential you are looking for is usually already on your payroll, waiting for a reason to believe it is allowed to go get it.