You can trust that she’s got it taken care of. You know she is committed to helping you execute your vision. He never complains and always offers to help before you even ask. You know you can count on him to get things done and come through in a crisis. These are the people who work hardest for your organization. These are your top performers. These are the people who it would really hurt to lose. You may come to trust and depend on these employees so much that you assume they feel the same and are completely loyal to your organization. Hopefully, your top performers are 100 percent committed. But, it is to your advantage to reduce the risk that they will jump ship. Certainly, adequate compensation, opportunities for training and growth and consistent feedback should play into your overall management plan. But, there are some potentially subtle ways that you could be unwittingly pushing your best people toward the exit door.
Burning Out Your Brightest and Best
The people who work hardest for your organization are usually the “givers” of the group who drive your organization forward. They can also spread themselves too thin and burn out. To add insult to injury, sometimes their hard work goes unnoticed and uncelebrated because they are often the ones behind the scenes doing the work. Over time, the energy of these committed team members begins to dissipate as they are pulled into more and more projects and have their responsibilities mount. In time, they may go from the shining stars of the organization to burnt-out bottlenecks to growth. Too often, this results in your top talent leaving for better pastures. So, how do you prevent your best people from burning out?
1. Weed out your “takers.”
In the TED Talk “Are you a giver or a taker,” organizational psychologist Adam Grant discusses his research on the givers and takers of organizations. He points out that having just one or two “takers” on a team can significantly impede the team’s overall success. Takers are those who focus not on “what can I bring to this team” but instead on “what can you do for me?” They tend to rise fast in organizations, but they also fall fast. Allowing these people to stay on your team sends the message that this type of behavior is tolerated, which devalues the hard work of others. Grant says the negative impact of a taker on a culture is usually double or triple the positive impact of a giver. Keeping takers on your team is a great way to send the message that there is no point in putting in extra effort.
2. Discourage “dragon slaying.”
Make it safe for your employees to ask for help when they need it, which may mean that you need to model the behavior. You don’t want “dragon slayer” mentality on your team. Your “dragon slayers” are the people who insist on riding into battle on their own to solve a problem or defeat a challenge. They refuse to ask for help even if it means they burn out in the process of accomplishing a task or fail to get a task done. Instead, teach your team to recognize when they have more than they can handle and ask for assistance. Don’t allow them to be shamed for calling in reinforcements.
3. Implement a delegation system
Along with discouraging dragon slaying, teach your employees how to delegate effectively. Use a ranking system for different types of delegation. Think of delegating as existing at different levels: level 1 could be “Assess and Report;” level 2 would then be “Assess, Report and Recommend,” etc. At each level, responsibility and trust are increased. The top level is full delegation, which is when the task is completely handed off to the employee to decide, act, and follow through, only reporting back under exceptions or unusual circumstances. Model effective delegation to your team, and watch them become empowered to utilize their skills and those of others in an effective, healthy way. You should see a reduction in overstressed employees and operational bottlenecks.
Let me share another surprising advantage of doing these three things. Grant’s research discovered that your givers actually fall at both ends of the performance spectrum. They can be both the best and worst performers within an organization. The givers at the bottom end of the spectrum often give so much that they fail to complete their own responsibilities. By creating a culture where effective sharing of tasks is encouraged, organizations can realize the added benefit of improving the production of some of their lowest performers (#winning)!
Creating an environment where your top talent can thrive is an intentional process — one that requires leaders to be responsible enough to stop taking advantage of the commitment and talent of their best; brave enough to do the hard thing of weeding out the takers; and disciplined enough to model and teach their employees how to ask for help. The benefits can be seen in better performance on a multitude of metrics like higher profits, customer satisfaction, lower operating expenses and, of course, employee retention.
###
Heather Parbst is a business consultant and founder of Clarity3 Consulting, a company helping organizations solve their operations, culture and leadership challenges. Heather uses her part experience owning, leading, growing, and selling a technology company along with a background in psychology to help her clients execute on their objectives, move toward organizational excellence and increase their impact.