Investment Tip

Traditionally leaders are drawn to work on the improvement of under performers. Typically an inordinate amount of a leader's time is spent working on improving the performance of individuals with the lowest sales figures, productivity levels, throughput, etc. While I do not disagree that there should be an investment of time with this group (especially if they are new employees), I do not believe that leader's should spend the majority of their time and energy working with under-performers. In his book How to Become a Great Boss, Jeffrey J. Fox compares the investment of a leaders time in developing and supervising their people to investing in the stock market. Fox states, "If you were investing your money in the stock market and had the choice of putting money into a growing high-return company, or a sluggish low-return company, where would you invest? Use the same principle when you invest your time in people."

The investment of a leaders time starts with determining how much time you are going to set aside each day, week or month to work on coaching, training, etc. Once the amount of time that is going to be invested is determined, we should allocate our time based on the performance of the members of your team.

My opinion and using our business, The Employment Guide, as a model, no less than 50% of a leader's allotted time should be spent exclusively with top performers. This might be a radical but necessary shift in philosophy for some even within the company I currently lead. I do not believe that top performers want to be left alone. In fact, the more they are engaged in the business and feel as though they are regarded as a business partner by the amount of time their leader spends with them the more productive they become. What has been your experience? If this is different than what you have tried in the past, try this approach and let me know how it goes.