Page 190 - Retaining Top Employees

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178 Retaining Top Employees

(make a sale, complete an audit, file a patent, design a prod-
uct) and they strive relentlessly to do so. They have a “perform-
ance perspective”: when something out of the ordinary comes
up, they usually perceive it as an obstacle in their way to
achieving those goals. As a result, decision making by top per-
formers is often one-dimensional (“I’ll choose whatever solution
gets me closer to my goals”) or ruthless (“I don’t care
what your needs are; just
Ruthless Equals get out of my way”) or
Retention Problem both.
When a top performer An employee whose
consistently,ruthlessly removes all approach to making deci-
obstacles to achieving his or her
sions is consistently ruth-
goals,isolation from colleagues and
others in the organization will eventu- less will cause major reten-
tion issues in the long run.
ally follow.With the resulting
decrease in communication,the Those decisions will show
employee will become even more the extent to which the
inflexible. Eventually the divergence employee is unlike others
will become so great that separation on the team and naturally
from the organization is inevitable. lead to alienation.
Your retention of top performers
You can help your top
is directly linked to how well you help
performers with their deci-
them make good decisions.
sion-making skills by
doing the following:
• Model good decision-making behavior. When you make a
decision, don’t “black box” it: make your thought
process and your reasoning for the decision transparent.
Explain your thinking to your top performers.
• Involve them in your decision-making. When you have
key decisions to make, even if you don’t think you need
any help, get your top performers into the process. Help
them learn to see a decision from all angles, not just the
“performance perspective.”
• Set up checks and balances. Make sure you have warning
mechanisms in place that alert you when your top per-
formers are making decisions that significantly affect oth-