Page 175 - Retaining Top Employees

McKeown09.qxd 4/13/02 8:50 AM Page 163

The Role of the Manager, Part 1 163

feedback with suggestions for building on that success
or strength. If you’re discussing a weakness or a failure,
give suggestions for remedying the weakness or pre-
venting such failures.
• Make it practical. Employees respond better to feed-
back they can use. Vague comments like “I think you
could do better” or “I want to see a large increase in
your sales activity” don’t cut it. Be practical and, if pos-
sible, give them tools they can use.
Juanita is reviewing the first quarter performance of Joe,
her top sales performer. He has only just failed to make his
overall sales quota, but has greatly exceeded the 15% of
the quota for new accounts in the pharmaceutical industry.
Juanita congratulates Joe on his performance and then
mentions that the sales average of his new pharmaceutical
accounts is only 80% of the overall sales average for the
company. She points out that if Joe can squeeze a slightly
higher initial sale from the new pharmaceutical accounts,
he will readily hit his quota.
Notice that Juanita has given feedback that’s specific, posi-
tive, challenging, and practical.

Growth and Development

You’re responsible for providing growth and development
opportunities for all of your employees. However, it’s especially
important to do so for your high performers. Survey after sur-
vey has shown that such opportunities are essential for retaining
these employees.
There are three factors to consider in providing growth and
development opportunities for your employees, particularly
your top performers:
• Make the opportunities specific to the individual.
• Provide associated training and experience.
• Present the opportunities in a way that will
maximize the chance that the employees will
take advantage of them.