To reiterate and amplify a message that I felt so compelled to write in my first book, if you want high achieving key people to remain working with you then for goodness sake make sure you recognise and reward the remarkable contributions that they make.
As a high achieving person myself, I know what it’s like to apply oneself 100 % plus to produce outstanding work output, only to receive zip/ nil/ zero acknowledgement of having achieved something quite special by those who you report to. Especially when the “special” rating/ assessment made is a sentiment that is shared by those (others) who you worked with to achieve what you did…i.e. it is not an assessment formed entirely in your own mind out of self-interest.
If you are a business owner or a director or some other form of leader of an organisation, and you can identify key people within your organisation who consistently exceed expectations, if you want to retain such people into the future then my best advice is start recognising and rewarding the quality/ magnitude/ importance of their work output in a tangible way. Meeting with them 1:1 to praise their achievement is a good first step…yet I suggest that your acknowledgment should extend beyond words of gratitude, particularly if the given work output resulted in the establishment of a clear point of difference/ comparative advantage or significant financial gain for you/ your organisation.
Believe this…if you doubt the importance of duly/ appropriately recognising other people’s efforts and achievements, then expect this choice of avoiding delivering due recognition to result in one or more of these outcomes:
a) The high achiever leaves your business, through feeling undervalued and not appreciated.
b) The high achiever relaxes their work efforts, resulting in a standard of work output that is below what they are capable of.
c) Your business workplace culture – reflecting an undercurrent of resentment, dissatisfaction and general negativity – will serve to ward other prospective high performing employees away from your business. Bad news/ reputation travels fast…and sticks !
I know of businesses (including very large entities) currently that are experiencing whole tiers of senior management “jumping ship” due to one or more of the above three effects being true/ relevant for them. So go on…it isn’t hard…start openly showing your gratitude towards your high performing key people.