It’s easy to highlight what you feel represents “good work” and use that as a baseline for future success. But is “cloning” your high performer the right way to grow your business?
It isn’t bad business practice, exactly, to create a set of expectations, workflows, KPIs and goals that point your people towards success, based on what works.
After all, if it ‘aint broke don’t fix it, right? In a disrupted working environment a bit of stability can be a good thing, a lighthouse in the service world storm if you will.
But to deny your people change, to turn away and discount new ideas, new workflows, innovative tech or creative ideation is to hamstring your business for good.
Whilst we cannot advocate enough for mentoring and perfecting staff performance on a company-wide basis – celebrate the wins, by all means – here at Rectec we know that innovation is the true power behind success.
Innovation doesn’t mean burning the old to make way for the new. What it means is utilising what already works, and combining it with new ways of working that elevate sustainable performance.
Innovate to accumulate.
Here at Rectec, we witness, daily, just how innovative people and business leaders can be.
But innovation is so much more than new tools or cool UX – it’s about offering sustainable solutions that fit hyper-specific needs, on-demand, at scale.
The simplest example we can give is this: there isn’t just one Applicant Tracking System that everyone uses. No one company monopolises talent acquisition tech or controls how creative recruitment tech can be.
No one size fits all. Variation and personalisation are key because every industry, every TA team and every candidate has different needs and requirements. And, to fully appreciate the service rhythms and outcomes of each industry and every candidate, a variety of endeavours is required.
So we want to channel a bit of that into some quick-fire hints and tips about how to get the very best out of your high performers. Because high performance doesn’t ever manifest in isolation, and every high performer deserves to be celebrated in the right way.
So here are some things to remember when you’re looking to replicate success across your organisation!
A rising tide raises all boats.
This isn’t just a slogan for fair people management – this should be an ironclad rule for all businesses.
By “rising tide”, and in regards to high performance, what we mean is the ability to contextualise what makes a particular worker good, and adapt those same ethics, productive behaviours and positive attitudes for every member of staff, individually.
Consider the differing people management styles for neurodivergent staff, for example. The best leaders make workplace changes to be more inclusive to neurodivergent talent because not only is it the right thing to do, it means businesses can utilise the focused, logic-centric, analytic power of neurodivergent thought processes for total, complete business good.
Simply put, use your high performers as benchmarks, but don’t assume that simply cloning their targets, KPIs and attitudes will work for others.
Bring new ideas of “success” into the fold and mentor your people into finding their niche version of high performance.
Do your business goals match your people’s personal goals?
Improving your bottom line, nailing that new client pitch, scaling to demand, releasing that new product – all of these are objectively great business targets.
But do they match your people’s targets?
When more and more people want to work for purpose-led companies, and when millions of staff quit their jobs over the last few years because their professional ethics and personal morals clashed with the sometimes cold, calculating nature of business targets (not to mention lack of commitment to ESG policies or unsustainable target hitting), alignment between the business and personal is key to elevating total, company-wide performance.
Of course, every staff member’s personal goals cannot be, at all times, accounted for at all times – but you should know what drives your people to succeed, and use that energy to parallel what you want to achieve as a business.
Adjust your leadership styles and don’t be afraid of c-suite change.
It cannot be ignored that leadership visibility – the elevation of diverse leaders and minority talent into leadership roles – has a significant and immediate impact on performance and business success.
Diverse hiring strategies and bringing new ideas into the fold should be of prime consideration for any leadership team looking to attract the very best of the best.
Adaptable management styles and cultures of leadership are the foundation of these moves to a more equitable workplace – and it starts with existing leaders turning their analytical gaze on themselves.
As per this wonderful piece in HBR titled How to Help Superstar Employees Fulfill Their Potential, there are 5 primary business leadership challenges every leader should consider:
- How should we lead teams?
- How should our leadership change?
- Does our leadership style match our needs?
- How can we continue to lead at scale?
- How do leaders drive business results?
Every single of these leadership elements profoundly affects team performance and, in this case, individual performance and the ability to grow and get better at a job.
But the critical thing to remember is that the best leaders adapt to each pain point in the search for a well-balanced business.
Diversify your big billers.
Whilst we slightly baulk at the term “big billers”, anyone who’s worked on a sales floor understands the critical importance of elite delivery of ROI for clients, users or customers.
However, consider this – if the vast majority of your business success comes down to a small, high-performing team who goes above and beyond, what happens if that team leaves? What happens if that team gets sick, or falls out? What happens if the team becomes dysfunctional, or has an off week?
Consolidation of income streams is hardly a novel business decision, but when it comes to high performance it’s critical you spread the “risk” over as many well-performing teams as possible.
Start simple, diversify what success looks like, and reap the rewards.
A quick, responsive process is what you need to attract and engage the best talent.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complementary technology marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.