Should Top Performers Work Alone?

A meme that I ran across this morning on several blogs was “should top performers work alone.”

The answer is, well, it depends.

In the short term, you will always get measurably better results if your best performers can do what they do best – peform.  Clear away the B.S., leave the hand holding and time wasting to lesser contributors.

This works great… until the “indispensible man” is dispensed with by life in the form of an accident, a family emergency / tragedy, or a better offer at a different company.

In the longer term, a team of lesser performers will benefit by having access to the top performers, albeit at the expense of being able to move projects along as quickly by working through groupthink rather than executing at warp speed.  And your risk of having things completely grind to a halt when Mr. or Ms. Can’t-Live-Without is out of the picture is mitigated when they are not the only holder to the keys of your particular kingdom.

But let’s face it – your mediocre employees and contributors, in the majority, will never rise above a certain performance level.  There is a “sweet spot” of indifference vs. motivation that every company, leader, and manager has always striven to identify and exploit so that maximum productivity can be (at least, theoretically) achieved – but rarely attained.

So, my answer to “should top performers work alone” is – absolutely yes.  You as a manager or boss are not so talented as to really believe that you can * coach * personal motivation.  Sure, your attitude can positively or negatively affect your reports and star producers.  But whatever you did (or didn’t do) had zero affect on making your superstars SUPERSTARS.

In short, exploit and utilize these high performers while you can.  Because soon, they will either be your boss or your competitor, but they will definitely not be your subordinate forever.

Spread the knowledge, but don’t “coach down / dumb down” your top talent to try and mistakenly raise the overall talent level of your “team.”

Changes

The coming weeks are bringing many changes into my family’s lives – new city, new school, new friends.

All changes bring new challenges and new opportunities.  It’s living through the transition without hating / killing each other that is the tricky part .

We should all be old pros at this moving game.  Since 1989, we have lived in / owned seven different houses, and are about to move into house number eight.  It never really ever gets too much easier, even with repetition – though frequent moves does have the perk of making one clear away the dreck that one accumulates over time.

It’s not that I don’t get attached to houses or places – I do.

While in college, we had a life changing experience – our family home burned to the ground – a total loss.  I was able to recover a few things, but for the most part everything I ever knew, materially, was gone. 

We were extremely fortunate in that everyone got safely out of the house, though sadly we lost our pets. 

Ever since, my attachment to material things has been pretty passe. I like nice things, I appreciate the good things in life – but know that their possession is ephemeral at best.

I’m feeling tremendous loss for the friends we are leaving and for the family that will remain here in Tennessee. 

And I will miss the awesome sunsets over the lake from our front window.

But the house is a place where we sleep – and my home is wherever my wife and two sons are.

And that is something that will never change.

This is Tougher Than I Thought It Would Be

Last night our neighbors immediately to our rear threw an anniversary party for my wife and I.

These neighbors are really much more than neighbors – they are really more like our extended family.

We have been in their weddings, and they have been in ours.  I have known them for going on 30 years, and my wife even longer.  Their kids and grand-kids play with my kids.

In truth, they are closer than our real brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles.

I have been so busy “making hay while the sun shines” for this upcoming move, that I haven’t been thinking about the great things we’ll be leaving behind in Tennessee.  Part of this is defense mechanism, because one realizes soon in this life that good – no, great – friends are a rarity and a treasure.  And our friends are treasures indeed.

Sad as it makes me to leave people that we love, our transitions in life provide us with exciting and life changing opportunities that are to be embraced.  After each of our moves, something great has happened; for example, we adopted each of our sons almost immediately following a move.

Still, after last night, our move this time became much tougher.  Way tougher than I thought it would be.

And that’s a good thing, because it proves I’m still not the cynic that I sometimes believe myself becoming.

July Wrap Up

Nashville City Meet 2008

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Nashville City Meet

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Nashville City Meet

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Nashville City Meet (Swimming)

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Nashville City Meet (Swimming)

Early morning warm-ups

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New Facebook Profile

I like it.

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