5 Golden Rules for Managing Your Companies Top Employees
Most leaders assume the best way to keep their top-end talented employees motivated is by offering them significant monetary rewards for their accomplishments. Although there is a tiny amount of truth to this, finding a top-end employee that credits their motivation to perform at a top level to financial compensation as their driving force is hard to find.
There are those people,however that do strive on monetary compensation, but they are not the kind of individuals you want to give much praise for their success. These are the type of people you hear about on the news that rips people off any way they can find a way. Situations such as these:
- Falsifying numbers that a company is worth to sell the business
- Hedge Fund CEO destroying businesses to gain money on a short-term deal
- Investment bankers persuading clients to purchase companies that are a bad deal to earn large sums from fees.
- Consultants that sell their client’s valuable work while convincing they no longer have a need.
- Superstar athletes that put themselves before their teams.
As you can see, these types aren’t the kind who make their employer the leader for the long haul. With competition being so high for high-end employees, you may be asking yourself, what are the best methods to keep your key employees happy? This article will discuss in detail The 5 Golden Rules of Managing Your Companies Top Employees.
Treat Your Employees as Individuals and No The Rank or Title they hold:
Instead of treating your key employees as titles, deal with them as individuals. People want to be seen and heard as who they are not what they are. If a top-end employee comes to ask for time off, instead of saying, “Of course you can, you are our top leader, you can do as you please.” Talk to them person-to-person such as,”Of course. We are here to support you if you need the extra time off. We have your back”.
Treating the employee as a person instead of the rank they are is important. Ranking employees put a strain of developing relationships with the leaders of your company. No one wants to be boxed in by a title.
The end results would still be the same,granting the time off. However, the way it makes a person feel is what would be different. Rather than making an employee feel as though they exist in a class at their job, you are addressing him/her as an individual instead of a number.
Every employee of the top-end level spends their entire life striving to be perfect and unique. It is profoundly jarring to them if you treat them on a different scale. Making your key employees feel like their unique, valuable, individuals and not by rank, levels, or number, will put you on the right track.
Opportunity To Climb The Ladder:
One of the biggest enemies to a key top-end employee is working for a firm that offers little to no room for advancement. If you have an high-end employee that is motivated to take on larger challenges to advance up the corporate ladder, you should encourage this employee with all the opportunities possible, or you will lose that employee to a company that has ample amount of available growth.
However, you have to handle a situation such as this very carefully. If you do add more to their duties and you find they weren’t ready for the task, they may lay the blame on you for putting more on their plate than they could chew.
Managing key leaders requires you to take notice of your top-end talent and provide them with as many growth opportunities as possible. You can easily win their loyalty by showing you believe in them and will encourage as much growth as possible with ample learning tools.
Supporting your top talent as they climb the ladder may put you In a position to have to battle the Human Resource Department. They tend to want to drag their feet on offering higher positions in a fast manner, especially if there are others that have longer time invested in the company that is being passed over.
Offer Praise When Performing A Job Well Done:
This is a common error where management is concerned. Because top employees are typically highly motivated and driven, managers often assume they are without need of praise for a job well done. Actually, with this type employee, it is just the opposite.
Talented individuals such as your top-end leaders spend all their constant time accomplishing the hard task of their jobs. They do their work, sometimes right on the edge of failure and there are times where they do experience failure, which is not their normal expectation.
Reasons such as this are why your top-end employees need pats on the back from time to time. If not, they will become stagnant in their work, lose their confidence and drift away from the corporation. Leaders such as these don’t show signs of needing praise; this is where your intuition has to kick in and take notice of their behaviors.
Make Use Of Your Employees Skills and Talents Beyond their Job Description:
If you are a good manager, one of your key responsibilities should be watching your top-end employees as they work to see what skills and talents they have beyond their job title. Recognizing the individual’s willingness to go beyond a title is a step in the right direction for managing high-end employees.
Pay attention to more than just their resume or a short conversation from time-to-time and you may very well discover a hidden talent. Once you utilize their skills and talents, you may find it not only benefits the company, but you are also showing dedication and recognition to the staff.
Keep in mind that your employees are the most valuable asset to your business. Managing your team in a professional, supportive manner will ensure long-term dedication from high-end employees.
Provide Critical Feedback:
A situation such as this can be the hardest part of managing high-end employees. Many managers find it difficult to offer feedback to their top performers who aren’t accustomed to criticism. If you turn the other way knowing one of your lead performers always do things the way they see fit is ultimately a disservice to both the company and the employee because this can take away the opportunity for improvement.
Coaching and leading the way can prove to be a challenging feat. But, it is important if your interest in your employee is to discover and make the most of each person’s talent. Taking this approach also goes for the employees that are exceeding your expectations because there is always room for development and growth.
Corresponding with your lead performers to establish development plans that include behavior and skills assessments,holistic goals, and training opportunities will assist in helping them with understanding weaknesses and their desire to perform at best.
Key Points
High-end employees have a deep need inside them to achieve to their fullest potential. They are natural leaders with self-discipline and persistent to accomplish long-term established goals. They need to have a strong management team that assists them appropriately to achieve their full capability.
As part of this:
- Define Your Expectations
- Keep their work interesting and diverse—they need to be challenged, just don’t set the bar out of their reach.
- Assign projects and tasks that will place them in leadership roles and push their skills whenever possible.
- Incorporate them with opportunities where they excel through “special assignments”, lead teams and participation in committees.
- Embrace genuine failures while creating an environment where high-end employees won’t shy away from trying new ideas while putting new skills to the test.
- Provide constant feedback so your staff will understand how they can improve their performance. Be sure to balance praise with constructive criticism and appreciation for their hard work.
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