Have you ever stopped to acknowledge and identify those within your team and company that are integral to the businesses’ operations?  Most of us don’t.  Unfortunately, studies have demonstrated that more HR management energy is spent on the poorly performing employee and not on the top performing employees.    Fortunately if a Google search is any indication, there are 11.8 million articles on maintaining the performance of good employees and 3.8 million articles on improving the performance of poorly performing employees.  An example of an article on maintaining the performance of good employees is here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703811604574534142561139588.html

and an example of an article on  improving the performance of poorly performing employees is here:

Often the heart and soul of a business is based on its people.  You as its leader have to ensure that you are focussed on your people and getting the best out of each of them.  More importantly, identify those that will be future leaders of the company and those that will be integral employees, who may not have aspirations to be leaders.  Both are important to your succession plan.

Remember one of my earlier posts about writing it down: http://successinsuccession.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/write-it-down/.  In relation to employees, documenting and ensuring that the documents are up to date, such areas for your employees as:

– writing out job descriptions,

– having an employee handbook, and

– writing down the appraisal system, expectations and methods .

These can give a much clearer picture and set expectations for your employees in the day to day operation of their jobs.

Learn think apply.