Page 10 - Retaining Top Employees

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Preface

igh-performing employees are great people to have around.
HThey hit targets, add value, contribute to the organization
overall, and inspire others.
For those same reasons, your top employees are also those
most likely to be pursued or at least actively welcomed by other
organizations.
Top performers also tend to have an inconveniently realistic
idea of their own worth and an uncanny knack of knowing what
other career options are available to them at any time.
They can also (sometimes) be cranky, independent-minded
mavericks who can be distinctly hard to manage.
All of this taken together makes the manager’s job of retain-
ing the best employees a delicate amalgam of motivation, sup-
port, diplomatic chastising, and inspiration.
Between providing resources and setting challenges, agree-
ing to compensation and coaching for higher performance,
rewarding achievement and encouraging teamwork, the top
performer’s manager is increasingly expected to be some sort
of corporate Superman or Wonder Woman.
While this book won’t turn you into a superhero, it will pro-
vide you with the tips, tools, and techniques you need to not
only manage your key employees, but also inspire, motivate,
and—above all—keep them.
I’ve personally been benefiting from, managing, developing,
challenging, retaining (and occasionally firing) key employees
in organizations large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit, for
over 20 years. The lessons I’ve learned (sometimes painfully)
from many cultures and countries are in this book. I know you
will benefit from them.

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