Brief
Leaders can better mentor and retain high achievers by creating a culture of learning that challenges them and plays into their natural passions, writes Alaina Love, CEO of Purpose Linked Consulting. “When you model the behaviors that high achievers value, you create a powerful force for organizational success,” Love writes.
Insight
“I really don’t know if I have anything to teach Colin. He’s one of the most capable people I’ve ever met,” Lisa told me. She was a marketing vice president who served as a mentor in a talent development program I was leading for a large multinational firm.
Two months into the mentoring experience, Lisa quickly realized that the approaches she had applied with past mentees wouldn’t be sufficient for developing Colin. Her first hint was in his application to the company’s program. Colin noted that he wanted to be mentored because he was “hungry for new insights and opportunities to grow.”
Comments from his managers indicated he was widely regarded as a future C-suite leader and had a track record of success in every role he’d been in since joining the company five years ago. Each of the managers felt challenged with finding the edges of Colin’s capability, which they never quite seemed to accomplish, despite assigning him to complex projects.
To Lisa, it was apparent that Colin was a high achiever. Leading him well would require its own set of rules.
In her book “The Success Factor, Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance,” author Ruth Gotian, studied high achievers in a variety of fields, including Olympic athletes to Nobel winners to basketball hall of famers. She notes that high achievers are deeply passionate about their work and loyal to organizations that recognize and value their contributions.
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