The ‘tip toe’ effect

How do you keep your high performers from leaving you? asks Paul Tizzard, director of Inspirit Training Limited.

This is a question I am asked on nearly every coaching course I run. Managers of high performers are quite rightly worried about losing their good people to somewhere they consider to be better. The worst thing that you can do is to ignore the situation and tip toe around them.

I believe that working with people is about a lot more than what you learn on management training courses. You often can have ‘gut instinct’ that nags you to take a certain action. I believe that if you are worried about some individuals in your team searching pastures new, then you need to pay attention to this.

If you are worried you might lose one of your high performers, this does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. With an effective talent pipeline in place there are others that can step into their shoes. But there is still work that can be done in assisting retention. 

Try not to be one of those leaders or managers who tip toes around high performers because they are worried about upsetting or losing them. Don’t feel as if they do not need anything from you as a leader because they are so competent.

Here’s why.

High performers are often quite well calibrated to what they are good at. They know their strengths and weaknesses. And they welcome good feedback from people they respect. They may even ask you directly for feedback if they trust that you will give it without any hidden agenda. Respect is a complicated thing but part of it is about knowing you can trust someone to be straight with you.

Also, people need ‘strokes’, otherwise known as attention or acknowledgement – it is just the amount that varies. Also, if you are trained as a coach, you know that you do not have to be the expert in everything. You build a balanced team around you that complements your own strengths and weaknesses. Even the ‘superstar’ performer needs a sounding board. Give yourself permission not to have to know everything and to be good at everything. If you are able to use good coaching skills to help your high performer make the right decision when it matters, you all get to bask in the afterglow of success.

There is a checklist of actions you need to ask yourself: Have I spent time with them? Are we in rapport? Do I know enough about them that they would tell me something personal? Would they trust me enough to tell me when they have done something wrong?

If you are unsure, you need to make sure. This is about getting to know them in the way that is comfortable for them so they can laughingly tell you, ‘Oh, by the way, I had three head hunters call this week but I told them I wasn’t interested’.

Sometimes it is easy to spend less time with our talented people as they do not seem to need it. Ironically, you can often end up spending more time with the lower performers.

Make sure you never cancel a one-to-one once booked because ‘they don’t seem to need it’. They may say ‘that’s fine’ but that could actually mean many things.

Be honest with your talent. Don’t say:  “As you know we really appreciate what you are doing around here – you are a high performer.” Say: “I really appreciate what you do around here because…”

Make it personal, honest and from you. Make sure you look them in the eye when you say it. Sounds obvious but in my experience, it does not happen enough. As the adage goes, ‘People leave managers not companies...’
So, if you want to keep your high performers, don’t tip toe around them thinking they will be okay, or there is nothing I can do, or they do not need anything from you. They do.