Managing High Performers

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 their star performers to ensure the tasks proceed without failure. Most high performers will not refuse work even if they are already overburdened. Task allocation in this manner might also result in friction between the high performers and their team members, which is something the manager needs to keep in mind. This will eventually lead to the individual being burnt out. So, a skilled manager must maintain a balance to ensure that they provide sufficient challenges without overburdening the individual and ask for their feedback consistently.

When high performers are making great progress and accomplishments, they expect to be appreciated and rewarded for their contributions. There is a risk that the high performer might feel that they are not being given enough recognition for their work. It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that the individual is adequately recognized and rewarded.

Another risk with high performers is they might attempt to bypass certain processes, like code reviews, that they feel act as a hindrance to their work and slows them down. To develop a strong engineering culture, managers should ensure that processes are followed for all team members, including the high performers.

High performers are used to delivering quality work successfully, so it is hard for them to process failures. They may take failure too seriously, particularly when they are early in their careers. This is one of the reasons for such individuals often being burnt out. Failures don’t necessarily mean that the individual is not performing up to the mark. In such cases, the manager needs to tell them that failure is part of the game and what is important is to learn from their failures.

High performers often have high expectations from their team members. They expect others to perform at the same level as them. It is the manager’s role to manage these expectations properly. Let them know that everyone is not rewarded and recognized the same way.

Finally, it is important to keep in mind that despite their achievements, high performers still need to be managed. They also need mentoring and continuous feedback to grow. There will always be some areas where an individual can grow, and it is the manager's responsibility to identify these growth areas and help develop their team members.

Let's look at some typical questions relating to the management of high performers.

Have you managed a high performer on the team?

A good answer will keep the key traits of high performers in mind and give strategies that were used to utilize them to their full potential and to grow the individual further.

To ensure the high performers are being utilized properly, you must provide them with large-scope projects. This will ensure you retain their interest, and they will keep delivering quality work. Provide them with collaboration opportunities with larger teams to increase the breadth of their work. Remember not to overburden them to avoid burnout, and give them rewards and recognition for their high-quality work.

Find mentorship opportunities for them. This includes both finding mentors for them and them being mentors for others. Give them leadership opportunities in roles like tech lead to see if they are a good fit. This will ensure that their leadership and technical skills are growing.

Saying that high performers do not need to be managed because they are already doing so well is considered to be a red flag. Such answers should always be avoided.

Another scenario can be that you had a high performer in your team that was not a good fit. In such cases, it is important to put the team member's career first. They should be in a role where they can grow and be successful. This can mean creating a role for them in your team or finding a suitable role in another team.

Let’s suppose you hire a core infrastructure engineer in a front-end development team. Though they are doing well in the current team, they are a lot more interested in working on back-end services. As a manager, you are responsible for identifying this mismatch in their interests and teamwork. You should be able to recognize if your team is not a good fit and should try to find a suitable position for them in a different team.

Example 1

Here is an example answer:

"I had a new hire who had previously been an intern with us. They did really well and were hired due to their performance. They hit the ground running when they were hired and delivered amazingly right out of the gate. Despite being fresh college graduates, they could deliver projects a level or two above them. These projects were expected to require a lot of input from senior engineers, but they were able to deliver them with minimal help.

In addition to recognizing their accomplishments, I identified their growth areas and shared my feedback with them. I worked with them to come up with a growth plan as I saw a faster growth trajectory for them. I ensured they had enough learning resources and proper mentorship. I showcased their work to the team and higher management to ensure they were recognized and had enough visibility. With this, along with the help of some of the senior engineers, I was able to grow them to the next level quickly."

Example 2

"I had a senior engineer in my team who recently got promoted to their current level but had already started performing at the next level. They were taking on projects that were beyond their scope. Despite the increased complexity, they could effectively drive these projects and took extreme ownership. Their work allowed us to scale and grow the team size. I ensured their work was properly recognized within the team and at the senior leadership level.

One way I could challenge them was to give them responsibilities in a tech lead role and increase the breadth and scope of their work involving complex cross-functional and cross-team collaborations.

With the increased scope and complex collaborations, I could identify a growth area in their communication. They did not proactively communicate progress and status with all shareholders. When I shared this feedback with them, they were a bit defensive in the beginning and responded that they were an excellent communicator. So, I provided them with a few concrete instances when their communication was reactive instead of proactive. They took the feedback really well, and we worked together to develop a plan on how to rectify this."