And if this employee keeps half of the company’s projects?
Interesting, but I hear a similar question from leaders of very different levels, on average, several times a week. Obviously, the appearance of such «star» employees is a kind of modern trend. A trend that gives a lot of trouble to modern leaders.
And it is even clear where it comes from. Now employees have many opportunities to show themselves, to show themselves against the background of others. Taking advantage of this, active, energetic employees quickly stand out from the team, getting the best projects.
This is where leaders make a common mistake. Instead of distributing projects evenly, «grow» many employees, they entrust all important projects to one. Why? Because he did well in the last project. Because he is more active than others. Because in him they see the future support. Because it is easier to maintain close contact on important projects with one employee than with several in parallel …
And the system starts to lose stability.
One person stands out, on whose shoulders there are many important tasks, he feels his indispensability, his character begins to «spoil». And in parallel, other employees see that they are not noticed, they do not appreciate that “all the elephants” go to only one person. In response, they also begin to behave less loyally, their motivation drops …
Our «active employee» in this situation quickly becomes a «star». After all, employees today are more self-confident, know their rights, easily change jobs (especially in large cities). All this leads to the fact that the employee begins to dictate the conditions. And, often, not in the most loyal terms.
And what should a leader do?
- You certainly want to fire such an employee, but it hurts too much: half of the projects will collapse, we will lose customers, and turnover will fall.
- And you can’t leave him — he behaves incorrectly, puts forward his own conditions and requirements, decomposes the situation in the department, looking at him and others begin to ask the question “why is he allowed, but we are not?”.
And the manager delays the decision every day, and every day the situation becomes more tense.
So what to do?
Of course, it is worth trying to keep this employee, because you will agree that it is strange to scatter such talents, they are not lying on the road today. Yes, and fire him, if anything, you always have time, this is the simplest and most recent decision. But you need to save it, by all means transferring it to the format of loyal employees. And this is a very difficult, but definitely solvable task! A task that requires the leader to take decisive action and mastery of jewelry at the same time.
At the “Effective Human Resource Management” training, we usually devote half a day just to training to correct such situations, to have such “difficult conversations” with an employee, study approaches that do not work and lead us to a dead end, study algorithms that give the desired result .
The most important recommendations are:
- First of all, the manager needs to establish clear boundaries for this employee, explain “what is possible” and “what is not”. It is better to establish them in a personal conversation with the «star». And it’s better in a calm environment, and not after his next “star antics”. Of course, he will challenge them, resist, argue why this is impossible. It doesn’t happen otherwise. But they must be installed with all determination. Everything is important here: to find the right words, and to choose the right intonation. The conversation should be built on the principle of «steel hand in a velvet glove.» Our demands must be firm and immutable, while the form of submission must be gentle and respectful.
- When setting boundaries, it is important to let the “star” feel that these requirements are mandatory, that if you do not comply with them, you will be mentally ready to leave. It is not worth blackmailing with this (this will cause a response), but it is necessary to make you feel the firmness of your intentions.
- In parallel, you need to show this employee what will happen if he cooperates loyally with you. Here you need to look at a specific person, be able to see what is important for him, be able to select the optimal motivator for a specific person. Can he get new powers? Maybe a freer schedule? And maybe the prospects for career or financial growth? Absolutely every employee has a motive that is extremely important to him.
- And, of course, you need to start assign important tasks to your other employees. Zvezda should feel internal competition (this is very disciplined), and other employees should see that they are also appreciated, they are also trusted, they also have prospects here.
I sincerely wish you good luck in this difficult, but extremely interesting business — leading people!