Think carefully about the behaviors that have enabled your star to succeed — they may be the same behaviors holding her back (see Case Study #1 below). As Millennials begin to make up a higher percentage of the workforce, frequency of feedback is going to make an even higher impact on high performers. High performers aren’t afraid to look for help whether it’s from friends, online groups or through coaching or course work. Case Study #1: When His Strength is also His Weakness Drew Margolin, the former CFO at Medley Advisors, was fortunate to work with a stellar Director named Simon. Two types are particularly recommended because they are considered constructive for good reasons: POSITIVE + SPECIFIC and NEGATIVE + SPECIFIC. Help them recognize common derailers such as arrogance, perfectionism, volatility, etc. Having one of them burn out is bad for them but also magnifies the workload on the rest of the team who have to pick up the slack.
Attendance and punctuality. This mindset enables them to find innovative solutions to the most challenging problems and also makes them highly flexible and adaptable. Your feedback to high performers should be specific. When people know exactly what they are doing right and why this makes a difference, the constructive criticism won’t seem so harsh. Below are a couple of examples of how you can give constructive feedback. These goals should be agreed by both parties and be as measurable as possible. How To Create Winning Job Descriptions For Your Company Culture, How to Build a Sustainable Work From Home Program, The Business Case for HR Software and People Analytics, A Look Back at ClearCompany in 2019: A Year of HR in Review. In the world of performance management, even the most seasoned senior leaders struggle with giving constructive criticism. Giving high performers special projects special projects can be a great way to keep them growing, interested and motivated particularly when you’re not able to promote them as frequently as they would like. While this could be disappointing, there’s not much … Luckily, feedback discussions do not need to be unpleasant, especially with top performers. This content was adapted for inclusion in the HBR Guide to Giving Effective Feedback.

Are You Paying Enough Attention to Employee Retention? High performers are likely to want to see evidence and specific examples that support performance ratings. In my case, I’ve often had people on my team who struggle with 1 1/2 hour commutes. If An Employee Didn’t Deliver A Project On Time. Melissa regularly asked for follow-up sessions to keep discussing the issue and grilling Gretchen about the fairness of the feedback. Avoiding it because you are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings is probably the worst thing you can do. Therefore, it is a wise investment of your time and energy to support and develop them. At first Simon nodded and agreed he would be more participative. However, giving your stars good feedback is essential to keeping them engaged, focused, and motivated. Performance management is just as much about reinforcing great contributions as it is about helping people improve.
Motivating (POSITIVE + SPECIFIC) – Maintains or improves self-esteem. The next step is to identify the employee’s professional and personal goals and determine how those line up with the company’s. 4. Although it may be tempting to focus more on employees who need help, you can’t ignore your high performers. He provided an example: Simon often skipped out on the Friday lunches offered by the company, social events that were considered an integral part of the “company spirit.” Drew told Simon that he would be more successful in his job if he could find ways to build relationships and trust with others. Your other employees have likely noticed if a person is a poor performer, and your inability to address it could cost you the respect of your team. Drew explained that he didn’t particularly enjoy the social events either but understood he had to attend and socialize as part of his job. He says, “The higher the performer, the more frequently you should be providing feedback.” Don’t wait for review time. Want to learn more about how to improve employee performance? Give both positive and constructive feedback to high performers regularly. Welcome to management in the Knowledge Economy. Just make sure these projects don’t distract the high performer too much and also that they contribute to the business in a meaningful way. Express Gratitude for Current Performance Many managers make the mistake of assuming that their top performers already know how well they are doing. Eventually, Simon started to attend more of the events, somewhat begrudgingly, but his participation allowed him to create better relationships across the company. It makes my job a lot easier knowing I can trust you to take the lead on this!”. Get Shit Done: Pardon my French. One of the best ways I found to keep my top people motivated was to surround them with other top players. Simon was later promoted twice, and when Drew left the company, he even took on some of the former CFO’s responsibilities. So if you really want to be a great manager of high performers, just get out of their way and let them get on with it!