Today’s guest bloggers are Bill Benson and Jeff McGraw with WilliamCharles Search Group located in Grand Rapids, MI and Pittsburgh, PA. WilliamCharles is an executive search and professional recruiting firm specialized in finding managerial and executive talent in finance, HR, operations, sales/marketing as well as president/CEO roles. They have a concentration of clients in Michigan, but they also work across the US. Bill and Jeff are both former chairs of the NPAworldwide board of directors. Read the post below for some tips on managing and developing top performers.
Fantastic, you have hired a series of “A” players! Now…how do you motivate, engage and develop those individuals so they thrive and do their best work? It is critical to hire right, but it is just as important to unlock their potential. Is your organization designed for top or average performers? Here are nine strategies to maximize performance of your top-level talent.
The First 30 Days – Give them a clear understanding of goals and responsibilities. Take the time to over-communicate company processes, behavioral norms, tools and expectations. This will help set the employee up for long term success. Help them make connections with key peers, leaders, and team members. Often when someone fails, it is due to missteps in the first three months on the job.
Empower – Talented employees thrive when given the freedom to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Encourage them to communicate with you and others to gain input as needed. Empowering doesn’t mean leaving them on an island.
Promote Collaboration – Encourage teams to rigorously collaborate concepts and ideas with peers and leadership with the goal of arriving at the best idea or approach. This promotes a culture of teamwork and learning and mitigates the likelihood of mistakes.
Don’t Let Issues Fester – Your best employees will be frustrated if they see leadership as passive and not actively addressing deficient performance and problems. Your best employees want you to deal with the elephant in the room.
Provide Challenges and Allow Failure – The best performers will move at a faster pace. Keep them learning and keep challenging them with projects. Often the most impactful learning comes from failing—don’t deny the opportunity. Just be sure the lessons are learned for the future.
Leadership vs. Management – Encourage innovation and calculated risk taking. Stay involved to help them grow and show you are committed to their success. Micromanagement or not enough involvement (no management) will contribute to them leaving.
Competitive Pay – Pay for performance if you want to keep your best people. A top performer may double the output of a more average employee. If they believe they are treated the same, you risk them leaving for better pay elsewhere.
Strategic Involvement – It’s best if senior leadership takes the time to engage your high potential talent by sharing organizational goals and vision. Create a culture where top performers have a platform to share their ideas and suggestions. People who feel they are making a difference are far more likely to stay.
Recognize and Celebrate Success – Acknowledge achievements and reward top performance. A culture where “everyone wins a trophy” will foster mediocrity. Top performers want to see credit where credit is due.
Accumulating “A” talent and optimizing their performance will make a dramatic difference in your company’s performance. At WilliamCharles we take pride in finding “A” talent for our clients. We experience success when we get a front-row seat to see them thrive when they are put in the right environment!