How Do Superstars Become Drones?
July 14, 2009
I got a question on my last blog entry asking me how to keep new employees motivated and how to keep them from becoming demoralized.
You know, you hire someone who you thought was going to be a superstar– and then within a few weeks, your new hire had become just like the rest of your under-performing, “Thank-god-it’s Friday staff?”
It is a frightening thing when superstar employees turn into drones, right in front of your eyes.
Definition of drone: dull eyes, dragging feet, sick calls, do-as-little-as-possible, look the other way when something needs to be done, make excuses, talk about everything but work, etc.
Why do superstars become drones? It’s because your current employees conspire to drag the new guy down to their level. They don’t want the new guy to make them look bad.
The problem is you can’t put a healthy plant in poisonous soil and expect it to thrive.
The solution?
Your performance review should be 2/3 behavior-based. Specifically, 2/3 of your performance review should be based on behavior with customers, co-workers and management.
If you want to control your staff’s behavior, you have to tell them exactly how to behave. These behaviors should be laid out in your performance reviews and employment contracts.
But, most small business owners don’t have a list of behaviors to expect…and even if they did have that list, they have no easy way to measure the behaviors.
Obviously I have the answer or else I wouldn’t be writing about this.
Get a free sample of my behavior scorecard: http://www.haveperfectpeople.com/how_perfect_people_behave.html
