Giving "difficult" high performers special treatment: yes or no?

Posted by Rick Yvanovich

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A high performer can be 4 times more productive than a normal employee. Having at least one of these star employees in your team can help motivate other members.

In the previous blog, we have discussed the different types of high performers with difficult personalities. A portion of these high performers thinks they deserve special treatment since they clearly outdo others. As a manager, is it a good idea to do so to retain as well to motivate your star employees? However, would the rest of the staff think of this issue as “acceptable”?

Giving star performers special treatment

Favouritism is highly unavoidable

Special treatment, or favouritism, towards a certain gender, ethnicity or educational background is unavoidable. It can happen in every organisation, and it can stem from some simple, minor thing such as asking another staff to join up during lunch break.

Favouritism is more obvious in some industries than other which sparks various issues, and as a result, impact both the company’s reputation and the hiring and/ or the promotion process of individuals.

Read more: Top 10 HR Priorities for 2017

Special treatment is highly unacceptable

Favouritism is merely a perspective of others (managers or other staff) towards an individual. Your employees may disagree with you, the manager, for playing favourites.

However, the group of high performers think otherwise. They perceive those acts as a form of recognition, and they do deserve it. In all honesty, if you produce higher and more quality results, why should you be rewarded similarly to those who have lower performance? 

Healthy vs. Unhealthy favouritism

It is crucial to ensure your employees know the difference between favouritism and performance recognition. Unhealthy favouritism can significantly impact and lower both ethics and productivity of your team.

Overlooking the bad sides of your high performers can trigger resentment and separation, and as a result, destroy team’s unity. Furthermore, demotivation might decrease the company’s profit in the long run, and not to mention, there is also a high chance the company will lose good people if their efforts go unnoticed.

Read more: Self-motivation: The guide to inspiring your workdays

Healthy favouritism can be established based on the willingness to collaborate or actions towards achieving a common goal. It is definitely true that you can’t apply the same bonus scheme to every staff.

However, above all, you need to be transparent as much as possible in order to give your employees, those who have a proven track record of great results as well as those who have truly improved, the reward that they deserve.

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 Rick Yvanovich
 /Founder & CEO/

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