Dr. Pari Namazie

26 Sep 2019 | Organizations & Leadership

Transcript:

“Your high performer wants to run with everything. And a lot of times, a manager, quite interestingly, if he has a team with someone who’s performing less and someone more, because you don’t want to spend that time talking to the low performer and explaining things and giving them feedback, a lot of times you keep bombarding the high performer with more tasks and more deadlines and you just go to them automatically because you know they can do it. 

And then you find a very deep misalignment in your team and an imbalance, where your low performer is not getting any better and your high performer you’re just overwhelming them with too much work. 

So again, it’s really important for the leader to be fair in how he or she perceives performance and the feedback and the development of those individuals. And that’s a trap that a lot of leaders fall into. They forget to help the low performer develop and also allow the high performer to continue with the work that they’re doing without giving them extra tasks. 

When you hire a high performer and they’re running with something, you have to give them the space to run with that. So again, it’s understanding what their needs are, what exactly will help empower them to take that to the next level. 

And I think sometimes it’s a fear for leaders because they might feel that their role is being undermined if they have high performers. So it’s also a level of confidence that they have or need to develop, that it’s not my job which is being limited, it’s actually our department or our function which is growing by this energy and this dynamism. So that for me is an important discussion and an awareness for a leader to have. 

And again, a lot of leadership starts with personal leadership, so how much a leader can be comfortable and understand his or her own fears and insecurities, and what to do with that. I think that’s a very important thing in leadership, you know. It does start with the self and understanding your own insecurities, your own values, your drives, your motivation, your level of energy, and how to motivate, and how to inspire, and lead by example.“

Dr. Pari Namazie | Managing Partner

Pari is a coach, consultant and facilitator and has over 25 years of experience as an intercultural, HR and organizational improvement consultant to multinational and international companies. Read more