Talented people & honourable choices

Posted by Anne Hamill

There are a variety of ways to track and rate employees – and when it comes to talent we’re usually looking to identify the very high performers and those with high potential. However, one of the problems with this approach is that we tend to assume that if someone is capable of doing a bigger job then they will actually want to do it. However, that may not always be the case…

At certain points in a person’s life, fast tracking their career may not be at the top of their list of priorities. For example they may –

1. Want to get home to young children who go to bed at 6:30pm;
2. Have a new baby who cries in the night meaning that they can’t cope with stress at work right now;
3. Be going through a divorce;
4. Be caring for aging parents or supporting someone with a serious illness;
5. Have community or semi-pro sporting commitments.

We call making decisions not to over-stretch yourself and burn out from all the pressures in your life “honourable choices” – and they should be built into your talent system.

With that in mind, consider this. How comfortable do your talented people find it to tell you or their manager that they don’t want to progress right now? Are you sure that they would be confident that managers and the company would celebrate this as an honourable choice – even if they didn’t know the background?

Most companies shine the spotlight on the 2% of high potential who could be the top performers of tomorrow. What are you doing for the top performers of today?

A lot of people (often rightly) fear that if they turn down an opportunity to progress, they’ll be written off as unambitious. Or their manager might just see them as someone lacking confidence, and needing to be “drawn out of their comfort zone”. They can end up fighting a rearguard battle to preserve their life commitment, in the face of a fast-tracking manager who sees their capability and wants to push them forward as their own natural successor.

The reality is that talented people who want to put progression on hold for a time (or who don’t want to progress) are a huge resource to your organisation. While the natural urge is to want to progress your best employees, consider the benefit of having a high-performer as a torch-bearer in a role, consistently giving you top quality and acting as a role model for others. Honourable choices can really be win-win for both parties.

So think about how you’re supporting those high performers who don’t want to progress – how strongly are you sending the message that you value and highly regard people who make the honourable choice to not progress? And beyond that, how are you supporting them on a day-to-day basis in the workplace? Do you have special recognition and access to senior managers for all excellent performers? For example, could you introduce a breakfast meeting or special email access that allows them to know strategy, and influence the way forward?

Are you ensuring that all managers recognise that it’s important to ask people how much stretch they want? If someone turns down a high potential programme today – is there a process that ensures that their name will be listed and revisited in future, should their situation change?

Take Away
A New Year’s challenge for you – what new initiative can you take to ensure that top performers who don’t want to progress are celebrated, recognised and rewarded? How can you retain and recognise people who are making honourable choices?