The Key to Great Employee Performance: Play to Strengths

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls great employees “untouchables” — they add significant value to become untouchable from layoffs. Seth Godin, in his new book Linchpins: Are You Indispensible? presents a new breed of worker called "linchpins" — people who don't need directions or checklists, don't need supervision and don't need to be taken care of with money and perks. They think on the spot, don’t conform to the rules, accommodate change and add value at every opportunity.

Both writers have re-energized the discussion how to inspire high-performing, constantly thinking and high-value employees — those who are untouchable for layoffs and are indispensible value builders in the organization.

Add author Daniel Pink’s recent perspective presented in his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, to those of Friedman and Godin for the last important component of this focus on power performance. Taken from Pink’s website, “The secret to high performance and satisfaction — at work, at school, and at home — is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.”

Pink uses four decades of scientific research on human motivation to expose the mismatch between what science knows and what business does — and how that affects every aspect of life. He demonstrates that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the 20th century, that’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. Today, intrinsic connection directs effort and performance.

The common point for the authors is that consistent and sustainable performance happens in the combination of a free-thinking and emotionally-connected employee. Free-thinking requires playing to employees’ talents and strengths — this encourages them to feel capable and confident. Emotional connection enables employees to enjoy what they do and therefore perform more passionately, significantly and successfully.

Lessons learned:

1. Hire the right person for the right role to help the employee feel capable and competent — create a “linchpin.”
2. Build in ways to connect employees emotionally to their work; inspire employees to be intrinsically connected to what they do — create a “driven” employee.

The expression I use in my book and in the work I do with organizations is "fired up" — that combination of an intellectually, emotionally and personally connected employee, ready to make a difference at work.

There is a growing consensus of how to manage and maximize intellectual-age employee performance — and it is in the connection of employees to their work. Augment your library with resources that help you maximize employee performance.