In short: a bad manager reacts to his needs by assigning work to the top performer. A good manager responds to the situation by contextually getting more information about it and making decisions off that.
If you're rewarding the top performers on your team with more work and responsibility, you may be driving them right out the door. This is what's known as “performance punishment,” and it can seem counterintuitive at first: Shouldn't the highest-performing people be the ones given more opportunities?
Top performers are sure that the business, career and financial goals they are pursuing are in line with their attitudes, values, strengths, and life style they desire. If you have a clear picture of all of your goals, not just your business goals, you are much more likely to achieve them.
They become bored and disengaged. Eventually, they will leave the company in search of someplace else where they could be 'utilized' to the fullest. If you are a manager or a team leader, you'll discover that your high performers particularly crave and value feedback.
Top performers move on from their company when their needs are not met. There are seven reasons why good employees leave their companies. There are management issues, no growth opportunities, lack of engagement, poor communication, deficient flexible workplace policies, lack of mission clarity, burnout, and exhaustion.
Perfectionism, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and anxiety, are common among high achievers. Constantly trying to achieve an almost unachievable objective while living in continual fear of failure may be stressful. More often than not, high achievers will push through difficulties and continue to improve.
Poor demeanor. Regardless of how good a high performer might be, any track of poor attitude might result in managers not promoting them. Immaturity, poor communication, a lack of empathy, and a lack of self-awareness lead to managers overlooking high performers for promotions.
High performers are also known as high achievers. They're the employees who consistently take on more work and leadership tasks and are eager to go above and beyond what their role requires.
The first thing that high performers do differently is they focus on getting better. In other words, they rarely focus on the outcome and instead focus on the process. They are seeking to continuously improve their skills and trusting that if they focus on getting better, good outcomes will happen anyway.
The Habits of High Performance
We call these six habits the HP6. They have to do with clarity, energy, necessity, productivity, influence, and courage. They reflect what high performers actually do continually—from goal to goal, from project to project, from team to team, from person to person.
There are five main underlying justifications of criminal punishment considered briefly here: retribution; incapacitation; deterrence; rehabilitation and reparation.
Prioritize work you care about.
Another way to handle performance punishment is to get ahead of the initiatives your boss is assigning by taking on responsibilities that are meaningful to you. Sometimes, performance-punishment tasks are frustrating because they feel like they're not within your own control.
Capital punishment refers to the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence.
Seventy-six percent of high performers said that they are enthusiastic about their job. However, 53% of those high performers also said that they were burnt out according to the report – higher than the 49% of typical employees. These high levels of burnout can be a slippery slope towards quiet quitting.
High performers want clear, ambitious goals—it motivates them. And not just goals related to their job, like a sales goal. They also want career development goals, like a long-term plan for getting promoted and advancing within the organization.
The Reality Of Who Drives Performance
Only a very small percentage (2% to 5%) of employees are top performers meaningfully above (1-2 standard deviations) the average.
Studies consistently show narcissists are more likely to step into positions of power. They often exaggerate their skills and sound as though they can handle anything. Their arrogance tends to come across as confidence, which can lead to faster promotions.
You should never quit a job because you were denied a promotion or raise. In fact, that's definitely the wrong reason to quit your job. But sometimes this punch to the gut will lead to clarity (albeit not immediately). Maybe you'd thrive better in a different work environment or in a new job position altogether.
Set a timeline.
For a top performer, you may want to give them multiple opportunities to improve. But if you haven't seen any change within six months, it's time to cut the cord. If the damage to your culture is severe, you'll want to cut the cord much sooner than that.
High performers usually take the initiative and focus on improving their own habits and workplace behaviors so everyone benefits from their actions. The top 5 key attributes that make an employee a high performer are problem-solving, drive, self-direction, strategic thinking, and initiative.
They provide constructive criticism
If your manager offers constructive advice, it's likely they value your work ethic and want to help you grow as an employee. A supervisor who provides clear and effective commentary is showing they believe in you and want to give you the knowledge you need to succeed.