Hope We are Not Killing our Star Performers ?

Have you experienced that your star performer has suddenly  become a liability? Such situations can be seen in organisations that are on a rapid growth trajectory such as startups or in their early growth stages. Some hi-potential talent who were great in early stages and smaller scale get pulled up the ladder along with the organisation's growth and may land up in such a situation. This happens very often when we elevate and promote a person too early in our enthusiasm to reward performance and of course our efforts to take our ‘winning team’ along the growth path sometimes. He is ‘My Man’ (using ‘He’ only to narrate, it may mean 'She' as well). The person gets placed in a position for which they are not mentally, emotionally and skill wise ready. They are not prepared for the stretch that comes with the new expanded and higher role. Also given the past performance reputation we assume that he will cope. Our lack of time for mentoring and coaching makes this a very likely scenario. 

We all heard about the famous Peter’s principle that every person rises to his level of incompetence.  While this is universally true, the question we need to ask ourselves is whether we sometimes in our zeal and enthusiasm to reward star performers unwittingly place that person in a vulnerable position. This is obviously is counterproductive and has diagrammatically opposite result from what we wanted to achieve. In other words accelerated the Peter’s principle. 

The dichotomy is that fundamentally the person was outstanding and probably has a huge potential but has now been put in a position for which he is still not ready. As a result their self esteem & confidence suffers. In his heart of things he knows it but the façade has to be maintained to align with his self image and reputation. The impact it has on the organisation and rest of team is disastrous. The worst that happens is that he starts fearing failures, feeling insecure, anxious and stops trusting people around him. In the bargain this creates a toxic environment. We get a totally opposite effect than what we started out to achieve.

We need to remember that Success in Life is not an instant noodle but a slow cook biryani that needs its own time to bring out the best. 

The leaders need to be careful and evaluate people from a view point of potential and not performance alone. Remember, Performance is not necessarily same as  Potential. There are many other ways to reward performance and ensure that we gradually and deliberately chart out the growth path instead of making a step change and put that person at risk of failure, too early in his career. We should ensure that we reward and provide a runway to our Hi-potentials to soar, grow and equip them with the tools and skills to succeed professionally & personally with coaching, mentoring and training. Best is to stretch their span of control and influence in a well structured graduated manner before elevating him. 

In real life we do face situations when we need to rely on somebody to jump in, take control and get the work done. We naturally gravitate towards our star performers to take that on. The bet may work more often than not, but sometimes it does not. What to do then? We do realise that this move is a one way move as it will be sad or practically impossible to reverse it.

Obviously our first action would be to again jump in, help him and handhold him till we know he can now fly on his own. No different from how we help our children take that first step or ride a bicycle. He does not realise when you actually took your hand away and he was on his own. 

Alternatively we can also sidestep that person on to a more suitable and equally important challenge to allow a better match and give him a chance to succeed.

In worst case, if none of these work, we may have to take the hard call in the interest of the organisation. Remember every person in the world has a station in life, which may be somewhere else.

On the other side lets look at this from the person’s perspective. Important for them to understand that all growth happens when a person takes a risk of stepping out of a comfort zone into the uncertain and unknown. It will always come with feelings of loss of control, insecurity and anxiety initially. People who fail and stagnate are the ones who panic and vice versa. The ones who succeed are the ones who are conscious of this and proactively prepare themselves and take the risk to move out of comfort zone, just like taking your jacket along if you suspect a snow. Instead of brooding and sulking, they reach out to other people for advice, help and mentoring. They are not afraid of admitting that they do not know it all and are vulnerable. One of the great virtue of leadership is acceptance of this vulnerability. It is only a matter of time that they find their rhythm again and naturally flourish in the new role. The leaders need to provide that nurturing environment where people do not fear failures and making genuine mistake.