“I hate to see her go, but she just wasn’t the right fit.” You know the story. It all starts out well, but then over time, performance drops, attitudes change, a disconnect develops and you're not exactly sure why, but you sense that it just isn't working.
Let me stop here to say, I am talking about a good hire, not a failed romance; although there are remarkable similarities in how people tend to handle both situations.
You have an admired employee; someone you like, and, at the time of hire, you were excited about adding them to the team.
Why?
Think about it. Likely it was their experience, past performance, maybe a personal recommendation. Their pre-hire assessment was spot-on, and they nailed the interview, connecting with your team right away.
They end up being a perfect cultural fit.
However, when it comes to talent optimization one of the key misses for organizational leaders is failing to get deeper into what actually motivates their individual performers and using that to positively affect performance.
Oxford defines optimization as the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource.
Simply placing the word talent in front of it does not cancel out the work required to help people excel. If you hire a highly talented person, it is not enough to just point them in the right the direction and let them go sell, install or lead a team for that matter.
I believe what you do as an organizational leader to bring out the best version of your people at work is as equally important as hiring “top talent”.
Joy, the bus driver in Jon Gordon’s bestseller The Energy Bus uses a simple object lesson of an old grimy rock to point out that “dust on gold doesn't change the nature of the gold. It's still gold”.
She goes on to explain that sometimes people accumulate a lot of dust and that as a leader you have to help remove that. This might involve helping them discover their true strengths and allowing them to do what they do best.
Before you lose your next high performer, ask yourself, “Am I polishing the gold I have, or is it collecting dust?”
Learn more about Vector Firm's Talent Optimization Services.
