Lesson 07 - Your Best Employee

I spent 40+ years working in the controls industry for Siemens. Let me share some lessons I learned along the way.  Lesson 07

In Lesson 06 we talked about your worst employee and why it's important to deal with the issue.

Another employee that needs a lot of attention is “your best employee”. 

As you are dealing with issues, crises, and general day to day tasks, it's easy to forget about your best employee. This is the employee that you never really worry about, you know they are performing really well, the  customers and other employees like and respect them. They stay on task, and don’t need a lot of attention. You can send them wherever needed and they will take care of the issue.

Because of that, they don't GET a lot of attention because you are too busy dealing with your worst employee and other issues. This is a big mistake.

Your best employee should get a lot of praise, recognition, and most importantly, they should not be abused. 

One of  my friends once told me “The more you know, the more you are expected to do”. Just because they can fix any issue does not mean that they should constantly be working evenings, or weekends while everyone else is sitting in their backyard enjoying a beverage with their family and friends. Abuse them and you risk losing them - do you really want to lose your BEST?

Another issue that I saw a lot, for Top Tier employees, was lack of continued training. I would ask someone when was the last time they went to a training class and many of them would say 5 or more years. Or they went to training on a new product 5 years ago, and have not been back since.

There are multiple problems with this:

1. The employee is not up to speed on the latest information on the products they are supporting. They may know it really well from on the job training, but there is always a lot to learn from formal training.They could learn about new features, workarounds, better workflows. If it's an interactive classroom atmosphere, even better as they can learn from each other and create new bonds across different offices.
2. Some employees are experts at a product, but are not given the training or opportunity to develop that same expertise in the new product. The person that everyone looks up to doesn’t know the new product and as a result, probably doesn't have much good to say about it. Think about the effects that has on product acceptance by employees and customers.
3. Employees want and enjoy training that pertains to their job. They want to become better, smarter, more efficient. Training allows them to do that. Invest in their training and their self esteem.The employee is “proud” that they don’t “need” training, but they also feel as though you didn’t want to invest any more in them. Make the investment.

Use your top employees as mentors for your high potential staff. This will help spread the knowledge and reduce the burden (abuse) on the Best Employee. 

Your top employees are that way because they have drive, curiosity, and some natural talent. Praise them often 'one on one',  and also in front of others (don’t overdue this, or you can cause other issues). It is also good if upper management recognizes them too. Most people really like positive recognition and when it comes from upper management, it means even more.  Think about how good you felt the last time your VP or District/ Area manager recognized the good job you were doing. It validates your work, and gives you new enthusiasm to continue your efforts. Most people crave that.