Welcome back!
Your direct reports will represent a bell curve. At one tail end of the curve are the people who struggle. Your job is to help them improve. It’s up to you to figure out what is wrong and help them fix it. The solution will be dependent on that individual and their specific needs. Remember that the process of how you try to solve the problem is as important as the work you’re trying to produce. People have to feel good about both, or your plan will fail. The majority of your people will rest under the apex of the bell curve. They will form the backbone of your team. They won’t struggle, but they aren’t superstars either. These folks needs to be treated well with minimal intervention from you. Let them work. They are a self-motivated lot with a good work ethic and you can count on them for the long haul. You rarely see behavior problems in this subset of people, because they are simply too busy doing the job to be bothered with much nonsense.
As the other tail end of the curve are the high performers. These people are a gem and need to be managed differently than any other group. They approach work as a collaborative venture. They take tremendous ownership of their job and their contribution to accomplishing the mission. They generally have a lot of executive level skills, although their actual position in the company may be at a different level. They will treat you more as a business partner than a traditional boss. Cherish that. They are your quintessential team players, who make up for the deficits of the low performers, help stabilize the middle of the pack, and attend to culture just as much as they do to productivity. They are thoughtful observers of people and processes. When they think something can be improved, they will let you know. Cherish that too. Their ability to speak truth to power is invaluable to you. They need you to support what they are trying to accomplish, and then they need you to get out of their way and let them shine. Don’t ever suppress the talents of a high performer. Doing so would be like benching the star quarterback on a football team so that the backup doesn’t feel bad. Do you want to win the game or not? Let people excel when, where, and how they can. You want to keep your high performers happy. Without these people, your personal results will tank. Your middle-of-the-pack performers will not be able to raise the low performer’s results enough to prevent a lot of negative attention from being directed your way for failing to meet organizational objectives.
Until next time, I’ll be praying for your insight as you study your people to determine where they fall under the bell curve. I believe in you!
