Who Are Your Star Performers

Brent was a successful senior executive working for a large manufacturing company. He was the person that you wanted to have when things did not go well. Everybody loved him for his enthusiasm, never-ending motivation and his vision of taking the organization to the next level. About one year after this bright star was brought in and produced so well he started getting frustrated due to the fact that his boss was not spending any time to groom him and was not receiving any recognition or bonuses for the work he was doing. When he accepted an offer at another firm nobody could believe it. His boss did not understand his reasons, his team was disappointed, and his peers simply didn’t get it. Brent never told anyone what he was going through. But everyone knew he was a top performer who everyone expected to run the company one day soon.

It is a difficult event for an organization when a star employee leaves, ripping a hole in the organization. Most managers are aware of the 80-20 rule that states that “80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the people.” Whether this is fact or fiction, few managers would disagree that the bulk of the work is done by a few key staff.

Ask a manager where they spend the bulk of their time, and most will say that it is spent with underperformers in an attempt to raise the overall level of the team. Most people don’t spend a lot of time trying to identify their best producers.

I came across an article recently from World at Work that reported an alarming 47% of high performing employees are actively looking for another job. In many cases stars are only identified long after they have left.

Star Performers Are:

· Known within the team, but may not be known to management

· Not clock watchers starting to pack their bag at 4:58.

· Usually approached when something important needs to be done

· Stars don't think of networking as something to do with other people. For stars, it's a constant. Nothing is a complete waste of time because you can always meet someone, talk to someone, or help someone. That last piece is important – stars know that networking is as much giving as taking. And there is an inherent humility in this way of life; stars know they can't get what they want by acting alone.

· Stars exceed expectations. Just doing your job is not enough. Stars do their own job well and then perform well in areas that exceed the job description. Generally star initiative includes helping people, taking risks and seeing a project through to the end – all in arenas that go beyond their job duties

Star performers are usually not the ones flapping around and spending time each day telling others how busy they are. They may be easy to spot in areas such as sales, because it is a numbers game.

Not only are star performers a dumping ground for additional work and some say they are often a victim of their own success.

What Drives Star Performers Away?

• Lack of recognition or feedback with respect to performance
• Internal promotions that are not based on performance
• Others taking credit for their work

It does not matter what profession you are in, the following is a formula to use to identify your star performers.

1. Look at the people in your organization, and then inventory their skills.
2. Compare those skills to what’s hot in the open job market.
3. Compile a list of people that have extremely valuable skills.

High performers are usually people who need a different form of motivation in order to stay passionate about their jobs. Stars thrive on executing results. Seldom do they sit down and reflect on the things that “just happen.”

Most of us can divide the people in our organizations into three categories: Star performers, moderate performers and substandard performers. Suppose you have 100 employees. In a typical work force, that would probably mean 15 star performers, 83 moderate performers and two substandard performers. . A study of computer programmers at Bell Laboratories showed that the star performers outperformed moderate performers by a margin of 8-1.

Retain Your Star Performers

· Work with star performers to set realistic performance targets.

· Give them more of your time than underperformers. Meet with them on a weekly basis for an informal catch-up. They are the backbone of your company, so why spend all your time with staff that are not producing the results?

· They want to be in the limelight. They want to make decisions. They want to shine. Be sure to create an environment where they can do just that.

One of the best ways to get what you want is to be an extraordinary performer at work. The interesting thing about star performance at work is that it actually demands that you be the person you want to be anyway. Being a good person, seeking self-knowledge, and taking responsibility for where you're going are probably key pieces of your core belief system. So you truly do not need to stray from your idea of a good life in order to be wildly successful in your career.

For a 30 minute complimentary session to see how we can help you for the leadership skills you may be seeking, please contact us at 602-405-2540, or email nburgis@successful-solutions.com