The Identity Transformation Engine: The Four Places Capability Hides — And How Leaders Can Unlock It

For 35 years, I have led major transformations across four continents: turnarounds, performance leaps, and billion-dollar programmes delivered in record time. After hundreds of teams and thousands of people, one truth kept repeating itself:

People do not fail because they lack capability. They fail because they cannot see their capability.

Teams freeze not because they’re incompetent — but because:

• the capability sits somewhere they haven’t looked
• the confidence hasn’t caught up to the skill
• they’ve never connected past experience to current demands
• they don’t believe the capability is “part of who they are”
• or the potential is so new that no one can see it yet

Coaching helps — but even coaching has a limitation:

It’s often a shot in the dark.

Coaches ask questions… but don’t always know which direction to explore.
Leaders try to unlock performance… but don’t have a map of where capability might be hiding.

This gap — between capability and visibility — is the root of the Knowing–Doing Gap.

To solve it, I developed the Identity Transformation Engine™ (ITE), a practical framework that maps every possible location a person’s capability can reside.

Here is the breakthrough:

There are only four places capability can hide.
There is no fifth box.

Once you understand those four boxes, you can find capability faster, develop it faster, and activate it faster — whether you’re a leader, a coach, or someone working on your own growth.

Below is the complete model.

THE IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION ENGINE

The Four Capability Zones

This 2×2 structure is inspired by the Johari Window —but the purpose is completely different.

Johari is about awareness.
ITE is about capability activation.

Johari reveals what people know.
ITE reveals what people can do.

And that difference changes everything.

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR LEADERS

Most organisations struggle not because their people lack skill, but because their people:

• undervalue their skill
• cannot see their transferable skill
• don’t believe their skill “counts”
• hide or minimise their skill
• have capability sitting dormant in Box 4
• have blind-spot capability in Box 2
• have unused capability in Box 3

When leaders understand this, performance transformation becomes dramatically faster.

Instead of trying to “motivate” people —
you help them see capability that already exists.

THE FOUR BOXES EXPLAINED

BOX 1 — Confident Self

Capabilities you know, trust, and use.
This is your foundation of confidence.

Most traditional development focuses here —
but it rarely creates breakthrough growth.

BOX 2 — Reflected Self

Strengths others see in you that you don’t see yourself.

These are identity blind spots — the positive kind.

A single piece of feedback can instantly shift performance:

• “Do you realise how calm you are under pressure?”
• “People naturally follow your lead.”
• “Your clarity is helping everyone move faster.”

Box 2 is one of the fastest pathways to confidence.

BOX 3 — Unrevealed Self

Strengths you know you have, but others don’t see…
or that you haven’t connected to your current challenge.

Examples:

• Someone says, “I don’t have leadership experience,”
  but they captained a rugby team for four years.
• Someone says, “I’ve never done finance,”
  but they ran end-of-day cash reconciliation at Starbucks.

A CFO claimed she “couldn’t lead culture change” — but had rebuilt team morale across three departments after a hostile merger.

This is capability hiding in plain sight.

Box 3 is the fastest zone for development.

BOX 4 — Potential Self

This is where new capability lives.

Not “new” as in invented from nothing —
but “new” as in untested, dormant, unexplored, forgotten, or never connected to identity.

Box 4 contains:

• emerging interests
• dormant strengths
• forgotten skills
• untested instincts
• transferable experiences
• unused networks or resources

This is the zone of transformation.

When people unlock Box 4, identity shifts —
and behaviour changes quickly.

THE SIX-STEP BOX 4 ACTIVATION PATHWAY

How leaders turn invisible capability into confident performance

he diagram outlines a precise pathway for turning Box 4 capability into Box 1 confidence. Here is the model as it appears in your framework:

1. Discovery
2. Investigation
3. Encouragement
4. Activation
5. Nurturing (Repeat Until Ready)
6. Promotion

And here is what each step means.

1. Discovery

Surface the hidden interest or potential.

Questions:

• “What’s something you’ve always wanted to try?”
• “What have people said you’d be naturally good at?”
• “What feels exciting but unfamiliar?”

Discovery opens the door.

2. Investigation

Explore where this capability might already exist.

Questions:

• “Have you ever done anything even slightly similar?”
• “Where has this shown up in your past?”
• “What experiences could transfer?”

Investigation reframes the capability from “unknown” to “connected.”

3. Encouragement

Build belief, safety, and readiness.

Questions:

• “Why might this suit you?”
• “What strengths already support this?”
• “What would be a comfortable first step?”

Encouragement fuels confidence.

4. Activation

Design a Minimum Significant Improvement (MSI) —
the smallest meaningful test of the capability.

Questions:

• “What tiny, safe experiment could you run?”
• “What could you try this week that’s only a 5–10% stretch?”

Activation turns potential into evidence.

5. Nurturing (Repeat Until Ready)

Support them as they try, learn, iterate, and build momentum.

Questions:

• “What did you learn from that attempt?”
• “What next small step feels possible?”
• “What success did you notice?”

Nurturing builds competence, confidence, and consistency.

6. Promotion

Once the capability is repeated and reliable,
integrate it into their identity — Box 1.

Questions:

• “Where does this now fit in your strengths?”
• “How do we help others see this capability?”
• “How will you leverage this going forward?”

Promotion is the moment capability becomes identity.

HOW ITE POWERFULLY COMPLEMENTS COACHING

Most coaching models — including GROW — assume the coachee already knows where their capability lies.

In reality, they often don’t.

ITE fixes this.

GROW sets the goal.

ITE finds the capability.**

ITE acts as a search engine for capability during the “O” (Options) phase.

Instead of asking:

• “What options do you have?”

You ask:

• “What capability in Box 3 could help you here?”
• “What Box 2 strengths do others see that you can lean into?”
• “Is there a Box 4 potential we could test with a small MSI?”

This shifts coaching from:

❌ wide, vague exploration
to
✅ targeted capability discovery

Coaches report faster insights.
Clients report faster progress.
Leaders report faster behaviour change.

ITE IS ALSO A BOX 4 MOMENT FOR COACHES AND LEADERS

Many leaders and coaches already do fragments of this intuitively…
but without a structure or language.

When they learn ITE, they say:

• “This is what I’ve always done, but now I can explain it.”
• “Now I know where to look instead of guessing.”
• “This makes coaching so much faster.”

This is the irony:

ITE itself is a Box 4 capability for many coaches —
a tool they didn’t know they already had the raw ingredients for.

It makes unconscious competence conscious,
and conscious competence repeatable.

THE SPEED HIERARCHY OF CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT

Across thousands of real-world cases, one clear pattern emerges:

Fastest Development → Box 3

Hidden capability the person already has but undervalues.

Next → Box 2

Capability others see, but the person hasn’t internalised yet.

Next → Box 1

Refinement, strengthening, and mastery.

Slowest but Most Transformative → Box 4

Identity-level expansion.
New capability.
New self-belief.

Understanding this hierarchy helps leaders sequence development for maximum traction.

THE ESSENCE OF ITE

• Capability is rarely the problem.
• Visibility is.
• People don’t perform based on what they know —
  they perform based on what they believe they’re capable of.
• When capability becomes visible, confidence ignites.
• When confidence ignites, action accelerates.
• When action accelerates, identity shifts.

And once identity shifts,
performance becomes inevitable.

APPLY THIS IN YOUR ORGANISATION

The Identity Transformation Engine is being used by leaders and coaches across five continents to accelerate capability development and close the Knowing–Doing Gap. To explore how ITE can help your team see — and activate — the capability they already have, visit gordontredgold.com or connect on LinkedIn.