Top Performers Need Love, Too
Are you giving them the mentorship and development they need to thrive?
High-performing team members are ah.may.zing.
They rise to any occasion. Take on any challenge. Need little-to-no supervision. Just wind them up and watch them go.
In a world where performance on our team varies, sometimes significantly, high performers can feel like a gift.
If you’ve ever had to coach an underperforming team member or put someone on a performance improvement plan, you know the huge amount of time, energy, and effort it takes. It’s exhausting.
As leaders, we have so much work to do to mentor and develop our team … bring others along … lift all boats … that having a team member who’s self-sufficient is pretty awesome. One less person we need to worry about, right?
Not so fast.
Don’t pay enough attention—or pay the wrong kind of attention—to our top performers … and they’ll leave.
Our high performing team members need—and deserve—just as much mentoring and development as everyone else on our team. Just not the same kind as everyone else.
Remember in school, when everyone had to read the same book, at the same time?
Some student struggled to keep up, most were right on track, and a few breezed through it and were ready to move on. They rarely were allowed to, though.
Teachers were so occupied with helping the struggling students catch up and managing the middle that they didn’t have time to pay attention to those at the top. Plus … these were the good kids, the smart kids—they were going to be okay.
We (sadly) do the same thing at work, to our detriment and the detriment of our top performers.
So how do we give our high performers what they need? We can …
Give them hefty assignments that fuel their passion. Your top performers want to learn and grow, and will likely do so at an accelerated pace. Make sure you’re constantly challenging them in ways that spark their interests and excite and invigorate them.
Remove impediments to help them fly. While you may need to help bolster lower-performing employees, with high performers you need to clear obstacles so they can fly—even (and especially) if that obstacle is you. Micromanage at your own peril.
Sing their praises. Some high performers are good at self-promotion, others simply excel at getting shit done. Make sure you’re getting them the recognition they deserve for the impact they’re delivering.
Set a high bar and address underperformance quickly. There may be nothing more demotivating for a high performer than seeing underperformance tolerated. Establish and equitably apply a high bar to everyone on your team, and take quick action to address underperformance.
Ensure they’re not the smartest person in the room. We often rely on our top performers to mentor others on the team. It’s an important role they play, but it can’t be the only one. Your high performers need folks who will push them, too, so make sure you’re surrounding them with people who are smarter than them. (And, if you’re a top performer and no longer learning from those around you, maybe it’s time to move on?)
Show your top performers some love and ensure they’re getting the mentorship and development they need to thrive.
Because one size does not fit all when it comes to education—or to leading teams.
What strategies do you have for developing your top performers? How is it similar to or different from what you do for others on your team? Drop me an email or share your strategies in comments so we can all learn from each other!
Bonus read: Appreciation goes a long way, too.
