Manage My Employees

I was sitting around a conference table today with surgeons/partners of a successful clinic when one of the surgeons, in trying to express the value of certain employees said, “They’re just those kinds of employees you can’t live without.”

It struck me that high performing employees are indeed people you wouldn’t want to live without. If you look around, undoubtedly you can pick out several employees you’d consider virtually irreplaceable. Note: If you can’t do this, either you’re hiring the wrong people, or you inherited a mess! Such performers have great worth in organizations that depend greatly on consistently high levels of output from its associates.

People who produce exceptional results are dependable, loyal and consistently deliver first-rate work. You can count on high performers because they achieve their work objectives with little help from others, and they do it day-in-day-out.

High performers are rarely if ever fired, instead they leave an employer voluntarily. But when they do leave, I’ve discovered that it’s often for three reasons:

1. Absence of standards/values. A critical element to job satisfaction for your high performer is that the organizations genuinely values excellence. I’ve heard top employees say quite affectionately about their employer “they’re fanatics about that around here,” as a moniker of pride. They want to know that they’re a part of a special organization whose leaders insist on, reward for, but also hold everyone accountable to exceptional ideals. I believe that standards must be crystal clear and not open to interpretation—the better the exactness of standards the more high performers like it!
2. If they are micromanaged. To keep a high performer engaged it’s important to grant them as much work independence as you can. If a top employee feels like their boss is over-managing their work, it will create low morale then foster disengagement. This is when a high performer starts becoming an average performer, or leaves. Trust to a high performer is spelled a-u-t-o-n-o-m-y.
3. When underperformers are mismanaged. It’s common for me to find that over 50 percent of employees believe that managers tolerate poor performance too long, or deal with it unsuccessfully. Over 30% of an organization’s annual turnover among its better employees may be to leaders’ improper handling of lackluster job performance. In my experience, well-intentioned leaders often hold on to a capable but underperforming employee with hopes that they can somehow turn them around. Without decisive action this expectation is unreasonable. Your top employees must know they can trust the organization to hold everyone accountable, and when necessary, prune the tree.

If turnover in general is costly, then turnover among high performers is devastating to an organization. Top employees are a rare find and as managers we want to do everything sensible to keep them from leaving.

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