You’ve heard thousands of times that having a competitive advantage is essential to business success. But can an individual’s way of thinking and working be a competitive advantage for a business?
I would argue that is the power of the talent management process and the scarce resource it provides. high performer – It helps turn your business around.
In this article, based on my speech at the largest technology conference in Lithuania, login, We would like to share some of our work practices and mindsets that have made Hostinger so successful. I think it can be easily applied to any company or team, regardless of size or field.
You can’t play in a professional league with an amateur player
We have always strictly followed our company’s principles. As a team, we understood early on that amateur players cannot play in a world-class league. We needed professional players to compete.
But we’ve found that it’s not just technical skills and experience that make a professional stand out. There is something else about high performers.
To expand and improve our talent management process, I initiated internal research and interviewed high-performing employees. They found that certain individual traits were prominent overall.
1. Ambition
One of the most important intrinsic motivational attributes for top performers was ambition.
Most high performers demonstrated a continuing need to tackle and accomplish demanding tasks. Ambition makes employees more proactive, enthusiastic and persistent in their day-to-day work.
Ambition unites two motivational needs. Achievement and Power. The striving for power is manifested by striving for high positions in one’s career and by influencing and influencing those around one.
These two motivational needs must go hand in hand, and striving for power without pursuit of achievement can actually manifest itself as a desire for a particular title without high performance. Important to note.
If you are looking for this trait during the hiring process, check the candidate’s resume for rapid internal growth within the company. Ask them about their greatest achievements and what they hope for in the future. This should give you an idea of how ambitious the candidate is.
2. High expectations of colleagues
Perhaps it’s clear that high performers have high expectations of themselves, largely because of their ambition. Interestingly, however, the study also showed that they had higher expectations of others.
It turns out that peers who don’t display the same level of motivation or performance demotivate top players. High achievers strive for achievement and don’t like others working less than they do. They are frustrated by the lack of quality and sustainability. Also, it is difficult to learn from underperformers.
Working in a team serves two purposes: maintaining collaboration and achieving results. Depending on the situation, people have to choose between “getting along” or “getting ahead”. get along well It means working together, seeking approval, and maintaining relationships is a priority. AdvanceOn the other hand, it’s all about taking the initiative, competing, and seeking results. Usually a person this he tries to balance the two. However, he one of these profiles tends to dominate.
In general, we’ve found that forward-thinking types are more common in our top talent. However, both profiles can achieve high performance, especially if the person has other attributes associated with top performers. Remember that managers who get along are more likely to tolerate underperforming within their team, and team members may try to hide underperforming colleagues in order to maintain relationships with them. is important.
During the interview, you can ask the candidate what they expect from their future colleague. In most cases, high expectations from others go hand in hand with better overall performance.
3. See the big picture
A third defining characteristic of high performers is their ability to see the big picture.
In this context, it doesn’t mean that you should have a good understanding of business strategy. That means the work they do must be meaningful to them. They do not just aim to carry out why behind the work how They contribute to the company’s success. High performers typically start their tasks by analyzing general information and then move on to specific pieces. In short, they want to know how the dots are connected.
According to the literature, this kind of performance process is common among experts in the field. However, many of the top talent I interviewed were still building their expertise. These findings suggest that some people tend to build expertise faster than others.
To see how a candidate approaches the job and if they have a big-picture mindset, ask yourself what makes you different or better than others while on the job. can ask
4. Self-efficacy, aka the “I can do it” attitude
Self-efficacy is a constant trait of high performers.
Self-efficacy refers to confidence in one’s ability to accomplish what is needed—essentially a can-do attitude. It creates an inner feeling that you are capable and that further effort will bring you success, and often goes hand in hand with a sense of control.
But why is self-efficacy important for performance? Confidence and a sense of control help you adapt well to different situations. It also improves concentration and makes it less likely that external factors will distract attention from the desired outcome. This is a trait that gives individuals motivation, determination, and focus to perform, helping them to never give up and constantly strive to improve in their role.
Some say adaptability is one of the most important traits today. But we argue that self-efficacy helps us strategize better and learn faster in uncertain and changing situations.
This is also backed by science.Conducted by researchers some experiments People with high self-efficacy show how they can adjust their speed to reach desired goals compared to those with low self-efficacy.
In practice, this means that people with high self-efficacy can easily cope with rapidly changing environments and deal with complexity and uncertainty. They usually like difficult tasks and learn easily by simply doing them. Juniors with this trait can be expected to progress quickly to the Senior Specialist.
To find out if a candidate is determined to get it done, ask how they reacted when given a highly complex and unclear task. See how they performed and what the final result was.
Don’t be annoyed by underperformers
The truth is that most managers and HR professionals in any company are busy dealing with underperformers. They focus on developing performance improvement plans and having endless 1:1 meetings to spot the subtle signs of improvement. And at the same time, the remaining 20% of the best people silently do his 80% of the job. Unfair.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t treat underperformers at all. However, I would like to suggest a different priority. Your first and most important job as a manager, HR representative, or CEO is to: Keep high performers motivated. Instead, help them reach their full potential.
Interested in joining? Check out our job listings or contact us below. LinkedIn. Want to learn more about how to keep top performers? Check out this space for more technical talent acquisition content.