In many cases, companies with the best talent wins. However,
if you are unable to retain top talent, it may be difficult for your business
to lead its industry. That makes retention of high performers a critical part of
your organization’s strategy.
if you are unable to retain top talent, it may be difficult for your business
to lead its industry. That makes retention of high performers a critical part of
your organization’s strategy.
For those who believe top talent is not a factor, here are
some clever ways they run their enterprises to lose high performers.
some clever ways they run their enterprises to lose high performers.
- Restrict
their creativity – In many cases,
highly talented individuals are very creative. Their approach can be
counterintuitive at best or disruptive. If Steve Jobs were not CEO, there
is a chance that he would have been too disruptive and fired. In fact, he
was fired earlier in his career. Part of the inspiration that drives top
talent is the ability to express their ideas through work. They often look
at problems from a different perspective. And that is what sets them apart
from others. Furthermore, because they are allowed to use their
creativity, they are motivated to work harder. When you restrict their
creativity, they become poor performers. In some cases, they become
antagonistic. At that point, their frustration becomes disruptive and they
lose all motivation to perform well.
- Do
not provide them with incentives –
While incentives can be monetary or non-monetary, they are a critical
component of positive reinforcement. As a rule, top talent is aware of
their ability to outperform their peers. Therefore, they expect to be
acknowledged for their efforts. That acknowledgement takes form in verbal
or written recognition, pay raises or promotions. If your policy is to
reward in a one size fits all manner, you are creating an unspoken policy
that says ‘high performance is unnecessary here’. When top talent sees
there is no recognition for their extraordinary efforts, they will seek a
corporation that will accommodate them.
- Put
them down – If lack of incentives is
discouraging to a high performer, verbally criticizing them will destroy
their effectiveness. Sometimes the best workers can make others feel less
competent. As a result, management and peers believe the high performer is
arrogant or a show off and make negative comments about their work or
personality. It is a way of bringing top talent down to earth with
everyone else. Instead of others increasing their performance or
leveraging highly talented people, they go into survival mode. They
believe the top performer is creating pressure for everyone one else to
work at the same level. While this is not the case, those who see high
performers as a threat may take action to level the playing field by
putting top talent down for being very good at their work. In other cases,
management may have the philosophy that if you are harder on top talent,
they will increase their effort to please management. While there may be
isolated cases where that is appropriate, if that is the norm in your
enterprise, you will never retain high performers.
While there are many more reasons top talent will leave your
business, it is critical that management eliminate these three behaviors if
they want to create a high performing culture. It is incumbent upon leadership
to reward and acknowledge all employees. It is more important to give special
attention for those who perform beyond what is expected. That way the entire
organization will understand that high performance has it rewards.
business, it is critical that management eliminate these three behaviors if
they want to create a high performing culture. It is incumbent upon leadership
to reward and acknowledge all employees. It is more important to give special
attention for those who perform beyond what is expected. That way the entire
organization will understand that high performance has it rewards.
What do you think? I’m open to ideas. Or if you want to
write me about a specific topic, let me know.
write me about a specific topic, let me know.