It is the dream of every manager and business owner to have star players on their team – these team members are typically known as high-performing employees.
High-performing employees deliver results and often exceed targets. You need high-performing employees on your team but you can’t manage these star employees like all other employees, or you might be at risk of losing them if you do.
In this video, I share the top 5 things you need to know about managing a high-performing employee so that maybe you can even attract more high-performing employees to your team. Below the video, you will find the text transcription for your convenience.
1. You cannot micromanage a high-performing employee
If you have a good employee who is producing top quality results, exceeding targets, and seeks out more challenging work, micromanagement will feel like punishment to them. They will likely think, “Here I am doing a great job and always exceeding, so why do I have someone looking over my shoulder?” It can really reduce the morale of high-performers. That style of management can be saved for the employee who isn’t doing so well and who might need a little more guidance, training or coaching. You need to assign good work to your high-performer and let them run with it because they’ve demonstrated to you that they are trustworthy and they can do the work.
2. Assign challenging work to a high-performer
People who perform at a higher level can get bored really quickly so you need to find the balance between giving them more challenging work to but not to the point where they might get BURNOUT. You don’t want to give your high-performers burnout because you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot because you will lose the best players on your team. You will need to check in with your high-performer on a regular basis to ask ” Is this work challenging enough for you? Is this enough to motivate you? Are you feeling okay with your workload? I don’t want you to get to a place where you feel like you might be burning out.” So, make sure that you are offering more of a reward to the high-performer than just more work to do. It needs to be a specific type of work that is going to be more meaningful to them but not to the point where they get burnout.
3. Recognize the efforts of your high-performing employee
Technically you need to be providing recognition to all employees but if high-performers don’t get recognition for going above and beyond, if no one notices their effort, they too will become demotivated and their performance will start to drop off. You want to sustain that high level of performance. Make sure you are recognizing them and appreciating them out loud for the work and for going above and beyond. Even if they say they don’t need it, find a way to recognize them in a way that is meaningful to them.
4. Provide regular feedback, both positive and constructive to your high-performing employee
A lot of managers are not giving enough constructive or positive feedback to their employees but high performers always want to improve. Even if they are already doing everything really well, a high-performer still wants to know how to get to that next level so you have to give good quality feedback. You can do that by telling them “You’re doing all of these things really great – here’s how I see you can get to the next level.” Give them quality feedback they can use.
5. Let them know on a regular basis that you value their commitment
If you’re treating all of your employees the same, even when they are operating at different levels of performance, that’s not going to be very encouraging for a high-performer. As mentioned in tip 3, a high-performer wants to understand the value they’re bringing to the team and they want you to tell them that you see the value they bring. Maybe even give them the opportunity to coach or mentor other members of the team to get them to their level. Typically a high-performer wants to take on more of a leadership role as well, so give them the space to share what they know with other members of the team.
We all need high-performing players on our teams to get optimal productivity and performance but you need to know how to manage and lead these star players.
So, just remember: you cannot manage your high-performing employees the same way you manage your other employees. You need to know how to keep them engaged and keep morale high or you might lose that employee. If you implement some of the strategies I’ve shared with you there is a strong chance that not only will keep your high-performers but that you will attract more high-performing employees to your team because you will be a rock star manager that people want to work with.