Much of the industry faces similar challenges when onboarding their new employees. Too many are inconsistent, unreliable or worse.
If only you could attract a superstar instead. As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.”
In my years of coaching and consulting with top landscape firms, I have seen an equal but opposite challenge with superstar employees.
I often write about the virtues of investing more in the right employee, i.e., a higher caliber employee who can literally help you grow to the next level. In this article, I have some important insights into managing them.
Superstars and supercars
On social media, I often see short videos of people driving new, high-powered sports cars. You see them hit the gas, lose control and immediately skid off the road into the guardrail. It’s never pretty.
A superstar employee can suffer a similar fate. Just because they are smarter and highly motivated, doesn’t mean they need less care and attention when you first hire them.
In fact, the more horsepower they have, the more attention they’ll need.
I don’t have time to babysit them
It’s common to assume that competent leaders and managers need less on-boarding (than lower-level hires.)
The challenge: left to their own devices, an ambitious, talented new hire can head off in the wrong direction quickly:
- Making uninformed decisions
- Implementing new ideas without clear guidance
- Reinventing the wheel
Their egos tend to be stronger, and thus, they need more steering upfront. Like a sports car, they can get into trouble faster.
Real-life examples
A Texas-based contractor that we coach just hired a high-powered sales manager. This new manager brought a stronger approach to bear on the organization.
Let’s just say it was a culture shock. It’s fine to hire someone to shake things up, but how you go about it can mean the difference between success and failure.
The new manager needed more initial guidance to better understand the existing culture, clients and personalities.
On a different note, sometimes a strong, quiet professional is frustrated by the limited impact they are allowed to have.
A top contractor we coach in Minnesota hired a controller but didn’t give her the upfront attention needed. He told her, “Here, wrap your head around our numbers. You already know your way around our accounting software.”
However, frustration grew as the controller was not able to make the strategic impact she wanted. She felt disconnected, and it almost went off track. Luckily, we identified the issue in time, did a “restart” and got everything back on track.
Powerful people need onboarding to maximize their value.
I have seen this happen repeatedly where an independent-minded new hire is left to find their own way, and they have less impact by year’s end, leaving them and their boss unhappy.
Spend your valuable time with your best people
Your problem employees, like problem children, tend to suck up the majority of your time. It’s the age-old dilemma in our labor-dependent industry.
That’s why you hire superstars in the first place, so you can be more proactive and focus your energy on truly building your business. This also means spending more time with your better people in order to maximize their impact.
Your job doesn’t end when you find and hire them — it’s just the beginning. The onboarding phase is how you unlock their promise, turning your potential superstars into actual superstars!
Good luck! Let us know if we can help.
