I had the title. I was already an attorney. And I was still trying to figure out how to be "one of the guys."

Early in my legal career (in the early 90s), when someone made an inappropriate comment, I'd let it go. I wanted to be taken seriously, and at the time, going along felt like part of what it took to do my job.

My boss saw what was happening. He started coming with me to those meetings and made it clear to the men in the room that I was their attorney, I was there to work on their behalf, and I expected to be treated with respect.

I remember what that did for me. Having someone use his authority to back me up helped me find my own footing. I could speak up for myself, expect to be treated fairly, and still be myself in the room.

I shared that story at the Society of Women Engineers' WE26 conference in Boston, where I asked a room full of women engineers, "If your title disappeared tomorrow, would you still know how to describe the impact you make?" Society of Women Engineers WE26 session

I'd ask anyone who leads a team to sit with a second question. What would your people contribute if they spent less energy trying to fit in?

Think about the person who spots the flaw in a plan and waits until after the meeting to tell you. Or the person everyone goes to when two departments can't get on the same page, even though that work never comes up in their performance review. You may already have the talent your organization needs. The way you run meetings, assign work, and decide who's ready for more responsibility determines how much of it you get to see.

Let's go back to the person who waits until after the meeting to tell you what they saw. Why did they wait? Or, better yet, did they feel safe enough to say it in the room, and did they trust you'd take it seriously? Leaders build trust in those small moments, through how they respond to a concern, whose work they notice, and who they give a chance to grow.

Those are three places you can put our People-Forward Leadership™ framework into practice.

1. Pay attention to what gets rewarded

Leader Awareness

Think back to your last team meeting. Who got your attention? Who changed your mind? When someone questioned the direction, how did you respond?

Your team pays attention to those moments. If the people who get praised are usually the ones who agree quickly or present ideas the way you would, everyone else learns something about what it takes to be heard.

Try this at your next meeting. Before you share your opinion on a decision, ask, "What are we missing?" Give people a moment to think. When someone raises a concern, ask them to say more. If it changes your thinking, tell the group what you heard and how it affected the decision.

2. Get to know the person doing the job

Empowered Ecosystems

At WE26, I talked about finding your genius. I mean the thing you do so naturally that you may overlook how valuable it is to other people.

Maybe you have someone who can walk into a tense conversation and help people hear each other again. Maybe there's someone who can take a messy process and explain, in five minutes, where it keeps breaking down. Their job titles may give you very little clue that they can do either of those things.

Try this in your next one-on-one. Ask, "What do people on this team come to you for?" Then ask, "Which of those things would you like to do more of?" If they want to develop that strength, agree on an upcoming assignment where they can use it. Talk about what you can take off their plate so they have room to do it well.

3. Make good work visible and give people a chance to grow

Adaptive Continuous Learning

In one experiment, researchers asked participants to rate their performance on a math and science task. On one 100-point measure, women rated themselves 13 points lower than men who performed equally well. I think about that whenever a leader says, "I figured she'd tell me if she was ready." How much are we relying on people to make the case for themselves? Exley and Kessler, The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion

My boss backed me up where it mattered, in front of the people whose behavior needed to change. As a leader, you can do something similar when people are deciding who's ready to lead a project, take on a bigger role, or represent the team.

Try this before your next talent discussion. Pick one person whose work deserves a closer look. Write down what they did, what it made possible, and an opportunity they've said they want to work toward. Bring those specifics into the conversation. If they get the opportunity, agree on the support they'll need and when you'll check in on what they're learning.

What will your people remember?

I've held a lot of titles since those early days as an attorney. What I remember most about my boss is how it felt to walk into that room knowing he had my back. Over time, that helped me trust that I could speak up for myself, too.

As you go into your week, ask yourself: What's one thing you could do this week that would make it easier for someone on your team to do their best work? Then ask what it would take for a person on any team in your organization to have that same experience.

That second question is where leadership development and organizational culture meet. At ThriveAxis®, we help executive teams develop their leaders and rethink the structures and everyday practices that shape how people work, grow, and advance. If that's a conversation your leadership team is ready to have, let's talk.

Related reading: The Leadership Ceiling

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This article was written by Dr. Carol Parker Walsh, JD, PhD, an award-winning executive coach, organizational strategist, and founder of ThriveAxis®, a leadership development firm that helps organizations cultivate People-Forward Leaders™ and high-performing teams. She created Recursive Leadership Theory, the published research foundation beneath the People-Forward Leadership™ framework.

A CNBC Leadership Expert and contributor to Forbes, Newsweek, and Entrepreneur, Dr. Parker Walsh has been featured on LinkedIn Learning, ABC, CBS, Fast Company, and Fortune. She's a Professional Fellow with the Harvard Institute of Coaching, and her thought leadership has reached more than 100,000 professionals worldwide.

A nationally recognized keynote speaker, TEDx presenter, Stevie® Award Women in Business three-time finalist, and four-time Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Award recipient and Webby Honoree Award winner for her thought leadership, she empowers leaders and organizations to thrive amid disruption by building trust, alignment, and adaptive cultures that drive performance and retention.