Everybody love’s a top performer.
Top performers are difference makers in their organizations.
Not only do they perform at the highest level, they are catalysts to help a team grow.
Top performers are wanted across the country.
We recruit them from other organizations because we want more top performers than our competitors.
We want people who get things done. People who really know how to move the needle on all of the metrics that matter.
Top performers are everything.
When you get a top performer, you want to keep them.
Not only do you want to keep them, you want them to keep performing at the top level.
But there are times when our top performers hit a slump.
There are times when they’re not being productive and not able to deliver on what everybody knows they’re capable of delivering.
This can become detrimental to our performance as a team.
When our top performers are not on their ‘A Game’, it can have a massive impact on patient safety, patient outcomes and patient experience.
So, it’s important that when we have top performers, we help our top performers to stay on top.
And when they fall off, it is our responsibility to help them to get back on top.
How To Keep Top Performers On Top
1.Find out why
The first thing you need to do is have a conversation with your top performer to find out why they aren’t performing as well.
Is there anything going on at work that is keeping them from performing?
Is there anything going on at home that is keeping them from performing?
We love the think that people can be one person at home, hang their personal life at the door and come to work and be something else.
They can’t.
You are who you are all day, every day.
Sometimes our top performers have challenges at home with family and friends.
Maybe someone is ill or there’s a complication at home that is preoccupying their minds.
Sometimes it may be their own health.
Are you allowing them the time to take a mental health break or be able to be replenished in any kind of nurturing way?
There are many reasons why top performers are not performing.
It’s up to you to find out why.
2. Provide resources
Does your top performer have the tools they need to be successful?
You may have provided them with resources when they began, but maybe they’ve mastered them.
Maybe the environment has changed and they need more tools.
Your responsibility as a leader is to find out if they have everything they need to be a top performer.
If they do not, it is your job to get it for them.
3. Help them get back on top
That’s right. Help them.
Our top performers need to see a leader who’s willing to get in the trenches, right alongside them and perform in the same capacity that they do.
As a leader, you have the ability to do that.
You may not have the technical skills to do what they do, but you can be right beside them as they do their job.
You can be there for them until they get out of the slump.
That’s your responsibility as a leader.
If you want to help your top performer out of a slump, ask them why, make sure they have the tools they need and then get down and help them get back on top.
