From the Flight Deck: Clear a Runway for Your High Performers

A Bersin by Deloitte study has shown that organizations with highly effective employee development plans have about twice the revenue per employee as organizations with poor plans. And earlier research from Bersin & Associates revealed that senior leaders who coach and develop employees (and who hold others accountable for doing so as well) are three times more effective at producing improved business and talent results than those who do not.

Of course, to get these kinds of results you can’t rely on a one-size-fits-all employee development strategy. You need to tailor strategies to fit your people. One perfect example: design strategies specifically for your high-performing employees.

These are the individuals who keep your company running right now. Their work and their contributions are vital to your success today. Don’t confuse high performers with high-potential employees—those who aspire to holding top leadership roles within your company. While high-potential employees are often high performers, high performers don’t always have their hearts set on holding senior leadership roles.

Distinguishing between these two groups is important because your high performers need their own “runway” to maximize their success. This runway includes dedicated development plans and budgets as well as timely, ongoing performance assessments to ensure their work remains aligned with key company goals and targets. Without these regular assessments, it’s all too easy to allow high performers to keep plugging away at tasks and responsibilities that no longer reflect the company’s evolving needs and goals.

Here are three tactics that you can use to help your high performers take flight:

1.     Set clear expectations with managers: Give your managers a clear understanding of what high-performance behaviors are—and how they might vary by function, department, team and role. Sharing these expectations makes it easier to identify high performers and communicating back up the chain to executive leadership who those individuals are. It also makes it easier to build out development plans and anticipate what an individual’s or group’s productivity will look like after further development.

2.     Manage performance proactively: True performance management is relentless and requires proactivity—anticipating the challenges you’re your employees will face and then providing them with the tools, guidance, support and constructive feedback they need to overcome these challenges as quickly as possible. Development doesn’t always have to focus on the long-range or on future roles. And don’t forget to reward success. While simple recognition and pats on the back are useful, they’re not acceptable on their own where your high performers are concerned, especially not for those making serious contributions to the organization.

3.     Keep everyone on track: Make sure that high performers are getting the support they need, particularly when their work environment changes or becomes chaotic. Temporary assignments and rotation of team members, for instance, can decrease the productivity of even your highest performers. Managers should focus on the individual performance of team members first and then look to manage disruptive external factors. Managers who put performance first—and do what they can to facilitate success—also build trust with their teams.

Some employers are tempted to focus most of their resources and attention on high-potential employees because they foresee a greater/longer return on their investment. But this is a mistake. While high-potential employees are important, high performers keep our businesses running in the here and now. Ignoring them can prove far more costly than we imagine.

Download our white paper, “Giving High Performers a Runway,” to read more about creating robust development strategies for your company’s high-performance employees.