Committed leaders create committed employees – Part three

“Committed leaders don’t allow non-performers to remain on the team.”

Nathan Jamail – Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author

Part 3 of 4

Welcome to part 3 of ‘committed leaders create committed employees’.  In part 1 we talked about not allowing bad performance employees to remain on the team and in part 2 we talked about the priorities of the leader in spending time to develop and practice with employees, versus focusing on their ‘urgent tasks’. In this part, we are going to look at a mistake we commonly make as leaders:  we don’t make the really good employees even better.  If  an employee is over achieving their sales numbers, without really working hard, or an engineer is delivering awesome designs, even though they don’t communicate or work well with others- we just leave them alone and let them do their thing.  A common, but critical mistake.   

The benefits of pushing and developing “good players”  

The obvious reason a leader should push good players or focus on continuing to develop these players is the value of their impact.  If these already good players can get even better- the impact of growth will have a much larger value to the team’s success than making the lesser employees better.  A second, and most important reason is – it is the right thing to do for the person for their individual success and future.    

The reason why most leaders don’t push or develop “good players”

One of the main reasons most leaders don’t push or develop their ‘good players’ is leaders are afraid if they push too hard or try to coach the good players to be even better at certain skills or disciplines- the employee will quit.  Many times they justify this mindset, by saying, “They are good enough anyhow”.   

Quick example of how this problem actually looks; if a person is not good enough to meet the team minimum standards or the required quota then the leader will take action- but if a person is good enough for the team or the quota, then they just don’t push harder.  Great coaches in sports know their responsibility is to make players the best they can be regardless of how good they already are- because they know that the player is capable of being even better or achieving even more.  As a leader in business- our job is also to make our best people even better.  

 Some examples:

1. A sales rep is obtaining quota, based on the current customer base and is not pushing themselves to grow the business as hard as they know they can 
2. An employee knows the business and might be the most experienced, but they don’t play well with others or cause unnecessary distractions or frustration for the team or leader 
3. An employee that is complacent and doing the bare minimum but because of their experience or tenure they are able to do just enough to keep their job and in some cases still produce a little bit higher results than some others

The power of developing

All employees deserve a leader that cares more about the person’s success and development than they fear losing them- and especially those that are good performers.  Also keep in mind- if there are employees that might leave if pushed- they probably are not as good as a leader thinks anyhow, because individuals that want to do their best- enjoy being challenged to do even more.    As a leader and coach myself I have not found a driven, talented employee, that wants to be successful at whatever they do, ever quit or even get upset when they are challenged to be their best in mind, effort and results.  In fact I would venture to say they are excited about the challenge, even thought they might fear the amount of work or commitment it will require from them.  

Final Thought:

As a father of four children (ages 24, 18, 10 and 8)- I always tell them: “I don’t care what you do in life or for a living, I only care that you do your best and commit to be the best at that job.” If you want to be a janitor then be the best janitor you can be, if you want to be a musician, then be the best musician you can be, or if you are a doctor be the best doctor you can be.  As leaders, let’s hold the same high standard and compassion for the commitment and success of our employees as we would our own children or loved ones.