Financial Uncertainty In Business – Leadership Is Critical

What to Do With Your “A+” Talent

Pink Floyd, a famous rock band from the late 20th century had a very popular song centered around the concept of becoming “comfortably numb.”  While this may be an overly dramatic way to describe what is happening with business owners’ views on top talent today, I cannot help but see the parallels to the way business is treating their top talent. 

Confused?  If so, I challenge you to answer this simple multiple-choice question below.   

If your top talent is not performing at their peak potential, your business will be ______: 

1. Equally successful if the “A” talent is onboard
2. Equally successful because everyone is replaceable
3. More successful because we need our top talent consistently running at 80%
4. Less successful because our “A” talent is critical to our optimal performance

When it comes to people issues, there is typically no clear line around “right” and “wrong”. However, I would hope most of you would have answered “D.”  If you have heard of the supposed “80/20 rule,” you will likely be aware of many situations where this applies.  For example, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.  While an organization unequivocally relies on the joint efforts of the entire team (presuming properly staffed organizations), companies’ relative success can be a variable of many factors such as the product or service, supply v demand, access, etc.  Where do the top people fall into the equation around strategy and execution?  No singular component alone is typically enough to fully optimize workplace production; ensuring you can hire the right talent and cultivate that talent specific to your business is a significant factor in elevating an organization’s success. If not done strategically, this can adversely lead to artificially limiting that same success in business.

If you do not believe in the above, no need to read on.  If you do, consider giving thought to the following questions:

• What are you doing to help your “A” talent expand themselves before real company challenges happen, beyond just focusing on the here and now of the business?
• Are you helping your top talent with burn out, fatigue and stress-related issues before they become a problem in your business operations?
• When you are discussing innovation and change in your business, is part of the conversation involving what your talent is doing to be innovative and change themselves?
• What are your leaders and other high potential employees going to be doing differently 5 years from now that will make them even more valuable for the business?

Are you at all uncomfortable with your answers?  Executive coaching may be a powerful option to better enable your top talent to reach and break through the ceiling of their potential, ultimately leading to peak performance for your business.  

After just 6 months, you should be able to revisit the above questions and be able to answer them more confidently and grow an even stronger business.  

Learn more by contacting us today!