Managing High Performers

Identifying high performers

High performers are valuable assets for any team. They are powerhouses who get things done and deliver results with consistency. Generally, they are meeting all the expectations at their level and sometimes exceeding expectations. A key indicator of high performers is that they are always hungry for bigger challenges and are more productive as compared to the majority of team members at their level.

Note: High performers do not necessarily work longer hours to deliver results, and working extra hours shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of performance.

They are independent and do not usually need help from managers or senior engineers to navigate themselves to complete their tasks. When it comes to finishing projects and delivering results, they don’t only win for themselves, they win for the whole team.

Risks and strategies

It is great to have high performers on the team, but managers face some challenges in supporting them.

Since high performers are always hungry for greater challenges, it is important to make sure that they are constantly challenged. It can become challenging for a manager to have a continuous and challenging workstream for them.

Also, there can be a potential risk of high performers being burnt out. Since they are delivering results at such a high pace and with quality, sometimes they are laden with more and more work. A lot of managers make the mistake of assigning every task to ...