Don’t forget or neglect your stars…

Show them continuous love, because they are the drivers that can motivate and inspire the rest of the team and take the helm when you need them to.

Sage advice offered up years ago, and still valuable in any industry I think.

Now I don’t mean …. show them the love, because they are your stars and so they are “above” the rest of the team or should not be held accountable. No, no, no absolutely not.

What I mean is …leaders can spend a lot of time with the newbies and newcomers for obvious reasons. They need the attention. They need to learn from you, they need guidance, encouragement, and skills development. That takes time and effort.  And while your focus is on them, your experienced veterans may be left on auto pilot- feeling unchallenged, uninspired, and unloved. (I got news for you, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, everyone likes a pat on the back from the boss occasionally.)

And no doubt your top performers were instrumental in getting your team through the last two years and you suspect they are as tired and burnt out as you are. Enough to be thinking about a change? Exit? Retirement? Check in with them and find out. Listen and ask where they are at now. The hard slogging is not over, not by a long shot and you will need your stars performing at their very best in the weeks and months to come. Make them feel like they are AS instrumental now in this next phase on the road to recovery, as they were two years ago. And btw, a simple “thankyou” goes a long way too. 😊