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7 Actions for Managing High Performing Employees · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How you go about managing high performing employees is every bit as important as having high performers on your team.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: High performing employees add that secret source to the team, help drive the rest of the team further, and are a key part of the team delivering great results.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Getting the most out of high performing employees is not just as simple as pointing them in the right direction and staying out of their way.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I take you through seven actions that I found to be super important in managing high performing team members, and these are firstly, set expectations and goals together.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, constantly work on development.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Third, delegate problems, not tasks.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, balance challenge versus burnout.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, invest time coaching and mentoring.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, reward great performance, and seventh, pay them well.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And for each action, I share tips on how to put each into practice.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had the pleasure of managing many high performing employees in my career.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is harder work managing high performing team members well than dealing effectively with poor performers.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And of course it's 10 times more enjoyable.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at Enhance.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The first action for managing high performing employees is set expectations and goals together.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: High performing team members want to know what success looks like from your point of view.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask the high performers to help define what success looks like, then the goals become their goals as well as yours.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of studies proving that ownership of goals significantly increases the likelihood of those goals being reached.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: When you are defining the goals together, it is also just as important to define how you're going to measure progress towards the goals so everyone knows when the goals are reached.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Make the method of measurement specific.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Try to ensure that the measure of progress is as straightforward and as easy to calculate as possible.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Another tip is to use a range of goals rather than a reach or don't reach single goal.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: A range of goals provides incentive for overperformance, which benefits the team and the company.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Adding incentives or rewards for the individual reinforces their desire to overdeliver.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: We cover rewards in more detail in action 6.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure the goals you set together are realistic given the level and availability of resources, including time, accessible by the high performing team member.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: The second action for managing high performing team members is to constantly work on development.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Seeking to constantly keep high performing team members developing is a great way to keep them challenged and learning.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The chance of keeping them in the company is a lot higher if they continue developing their careers at a pace that suits them.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Find out what their aspirations and ambitions are by asking them.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Find out where they want to get to and why.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Set aside time with them so you can both work out what skills and experience will be needed for the next step or two in their career journey.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Put in the effort to plan how you might provide them the experience they need to meet their ambitions.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, the depth of their skills is probably as important or more important than the range of their skills.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Work with your peer group and your manager to create development opportunities.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Get them involved in projects, secondments, and new experiences.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you plan should also meet the needs of the business.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: This balancing act is not easy.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Get the balance right and you'll find it's a lot easier to provide development opportunities and get great value from your high performing employees.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have to constantly work on development if you want to keep your high performers happy and engaged.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: The third action for managing high performing employees is to delegate problems, not tasks.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Delegating problems provides autonomy for the high performing team members.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: They have to think, plan, problem solve and execute solutions.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Encouraging them to build these skill sets is going to help everyone.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you just delegate tasks, you have a solution and all you're asking them to do is execute the solution.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is not nearly as challenging, rewarding, or useful to build skills as delegating problems is.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: There is also a good chance that the high-performing employees will know their jobs better than you do.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is more practical to get them to come up with solutions.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Asking their team members to solve problems will also help them build decision-making skills and their confidence to make decisions.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Set out the framework within which they can make decisions, watch out for attempts to pass responsibility to make those decisions back to you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Delegating problems, not tasks, also demonstrates your trust in them and their ability to solve the problem and get a good solution in place.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Building this two-way trust is vital if you're going to get the most out of your top performing team members and if they are going to get the most development and career progress from you.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth action for managing high performing employees is to balance challenge and burnout.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: To keep high performers engaged and motivated, they need to be continuously challenged and given opportunities for development.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because you know that they will get the job done, there is a tendency to keep handing more and more work to them.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: This runs the risk of burning out your high performing employees, which would be bad news for everyone.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Getting the balance right between challenge and burnout is difficult, and there is not a one size fits all.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Each of us are different and we respond to challenge and pressure in different ways.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: The most effective way to understand where challenge tips in towards burnout is to get to know the individual and stay close to their workload.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on the person, you should be comfortable taking away work and giving it to another team member, even if it will not be done quite as well or quite as quickly.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You must pay careful attention to the workload of high performing employees.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They are the most likely employees to burn out, in my view.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Step in to reduce workload or pressure quickly as soon as you start getting concerned.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And high performers are usually very quick to ask for more work if they are bored or not sufficiently challenged.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping enough different and interesting work lined up has its own problems.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget about the rest of your team and their workloads.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Keep a good balance of work and challenge within your team, and you'll have a much more engaged and happier team.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth action for managing high performing employees is to invest time coaching and mentoring them.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Investing your time to coach and mentor all of your employees, and in particular the high performing employees, is one of the best ways of improving individual and team performance that I know.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Investing your time to support and develop your team members is a great way, firstly, to demonstrate that they and their career are important to you, secondly, to increase individual and team loyalty to you, third, increasing motivation of the team members, fourth, keep yourself close to the action of what is going on without even a hint of micromanaging, and fifth, build personal as well as professional relationships.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend booking in a weekly one-on-one meeting with each of your direct reports.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, an agenda for these meetings could be firstly check-in, secondly, information sharing, thirdly, goal updates, fourth, solving problems, fifth, decision making, and sixth feedback.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Investing time to coach and mentor also provides you a great platform to give and receive feedback from your employees.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Effective and useful feedback massively helps professional skills development as both parties know what is going well and what is not.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Provide a clear picture of performance to each of your employees.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Outside of helping and supporting team members to do their day jobs, progress projects and deliver the results you need, I would also suggest helping high-performing employees firstly build their networks of contacts within the business and external to the business.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, develop their own people management and relationship building skills, and third, develop their leadership and decision-making skills.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And any other skills or experience that will help them progress their careers forwards.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: The sixth action for managing high performing employees is to reward great performance.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: High performing team members, generally speaking, want and need praise more often than the average performer.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to look for opportunities to praise and give that praise.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: The research has shown that to keep an employee happy and engaged, you need to praise three times more than criticize.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So give genuine praise without overdoing it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the individuals how they would like good performance to be recognised.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everyone is different, and surprisingly, more money doesn't feature that highly for most people.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ensure that high performing employees recognise and acknowledge the team contribution to delivering their high performance.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Success has many fathers, is a very true expression.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of other ways of rewarding great performance.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, prizes, secondly, recognition from peers and team members, third, additional holiday, fourth, bonuses, fifth, pay rises, sixth, trips and events, seventh more of your time, external training, coaching, etc.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: A word of warning: don't give special treatment to high performing team members and don't neglect the rest of your team.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Treat everyone in the same way with the same access to coaching, rewards, praise, etc.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is no good if you have a very happy high performer and a very unhappy team.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: This would certainly leave you worse off.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: How the individual achieves their performance is as important as delivering against targets.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: If they deliver their targets but display behaviours against the company values or they step on others to deliver their high performance, you should not reward them.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you do, you'll be sending the wrong message and have a very unhappy team.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, promotion is a great reward for those delivering great performance and the right type of performance.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: This can easily mean that this purse moves from your team.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: While this may be painful for you and your team performance, it is absolutely the right thing to do for the company.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't support their promotion, you will lose them from your team as they move company anyway.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: If the company loses them, everyone remaining will be worse off.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: So reward of great performance, even if this disadvantages your team in the short term.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: The seventh action for managing high performing employees is to pay them well.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Pay is a thorny issue in many companies and there is a lot of politics around pay.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: High performing employees deliver a lot more value than good or okay employees.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some studies suggest the average difference in performance is about 400% compared to the average employee.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And 400% is a lot of extra value.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: The really good news is to get the 400% extra in value, you rarely have to pay anything like this over and above the pay of an average employee.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Even paying them, say I know 50% more would likely be a good deal for them.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this would certainly be a great deal for the company when you think about it.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look around at the marketplace, work out what a good person doing this job will receive, and then add an additional percentage to this.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've found it much easier to get a bigger bonus signed off compared to trying to get a moderate pay increase in salary signed off.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Variable pay normally comes with conditions attached, you know such as meeting targets.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: This makes getting sign-off that much easier.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you ask for a higher salary or a significantly bigger bonus, don't just put forward your opinion.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Take evidence with you of their performance to your manager or the remuneration team.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Evidence is much more persuasive than opinion alone.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And fight to get a good outcome for your high performers.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't pay high performing employees well, they will leave.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: High performers will always find plenty of other opportunities at other companies available to them if they go looking.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The cost of losing high performers is actually really high, and the chances of getting a person every bit as good is lower than you might think.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pay them well.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So in summary, you have seven actions for managing high performing employees.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Put them all into practice and you will be a happy manager for a lot longer and have a higher performing team to boot.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: The seven actions are firstly set expectations and goals together.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, constantly work on development.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Third, delegate problems, not tasks.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, balance challenge versus burnout.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, invest time coaching and mentoring them.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, reward great performance, and seventh, pay them well.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have any questions, please drop me an email at support at enhance.training and I'll get back to you.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.