Managing high potential people

My last post about how to be an effective early-stage employee got a big response.

Managers responded with questions. They wanted to know how to manage high potential employees. I got calls from the CEO of a major media company, a brilliant scientist leading a world-changing startup, and the head of a high-growth firm, all asking about how to empower their own General Purpose Smart Gals/Guys (GPSGs) to peak performance.

If you haven’t read the post, GPSGs are super-smart, young, inexperienced, and hungry to learn and build. They can be a secret weapon for any team, especially in start-ups. GPSGs can step into functional roles or they can act as a Chief of Staff. When we started our new company, Helpful, the first person that we brought on board was David Pardy as Chief of Staff. When we started our last company, Rypple, the first person who joined was George Babu, the epitome of GPSG.

GPSGs can make a huge difference. But — how do you get the most out of them?

I’m still on a long journey to become a great manager, and by no means have I figured it all out. But — I’ve learned four key points that remind me how to be effective with GPSGs — and great people in general:

1. Overcommunicate
2. Give Trust
3. Control Your Emotions
4. Be Direct

Below, I’ll go into some more details.

Overcommunicate

1. Ask them hard questions about big problems — in front of others. The Socratic method, which I endured in law school, means learning by answering questions on the spot in a social setting. Do that with your GPSGs. Ask them genuinely hard business problems in meetings. Ask for their opinion even if you already have an answer. When you do it in front of other people, you’ll demonstrate to them that you trust and respect their judgement. Plus, social pressure will kick them into problem-solving mode. And — they better get used to thinking on the spot and articulating in front of a crowd!
2. Use the magic words. I call these “magic words” because they supercharge GPSG energy and determination:
   a) “Success looks like [X]…”
   Give GPSGs a clear goal. But — only give them the destination, not a map. Make them explorers, not cartographers. Again, they need to think through the challenge themselves (plus, they might surprise you).
   b)“Imagine what it will look like when [X]…”
   Get GPSGs to visualize success. Visualization is the most powerful catalyst for action.
   c)“I don’t think this meets your expectations of good work.”
   When framed around what they can achieve, this is a more effective way of saying, “You can do better.”
3. Explain business value. Explicitly tie business value to GPSGs activities. For example, say, “We need to solve this problem so we can close our first customer.” Why spell this out? What you think are clear tasks might be confusing to the inexperienced (even if they are hyper intelligent). When they’re confused, GPSGs will resort to first principles to solve a problem. That’s why they need to understand the business problem.

Give Trust

1. When times get tough, be light touch. Running a startup is hard. Pressure mounts. Things break. You might know (or think you know) how to fix it all yourself. Don’t. Let your GPSGs help you. Difficult times cause GPSGs to learn and build fast. Give them missions to focus their energy. Get them to think how you think. Give advice, express urgency, and let them go.
2. Expose them to new opportunities. Hiring a GPSG is an investment. They’re curious to try new things — marketing, sales, product, or something else. Expose them to their interests. Allow them to roam. It might be a swing and a miss. But when they connect, they’ll hit a home run. Give them uncomfortably large responsibilities. If you and your GPSG are wondering if they can handle it, bias towards giving it to them.
3. Acknowledge the scale of the challenge. It’s an amazing accomplishment when a startup succeeds. Don’t be coy about it. It’s healthy to feel overwhelmed at the challenge sometimes. Acknowledge that. A challenge is like catnip for GPSGs — they’ll throw themselves at it. In fact, if GPSGs don’t feel challenged, they’ll go elsewhere. They need to be constantly learning and doing things they feel are important.
4. Let them find their way. Startups can get messy. Things change fast. Roles can be fluid, especially for GPSGs. If you assign ambiguous roles and projects, people will step on each other’s toes. GPSGs usually don’t have the experience to navigate workplace politics like a pro (and they may not want to — they might just see a challenge and go). Sometimes, you’ll need to tell them that they’ve swam into another swimmer’s lane. Say, “I appreciate your intensity, but right now I want you to focus on [X]…” On the other hand, if you want your GPSG to take over a project, be clear about the authority you’re giving them. Don’t let them go after problems with an arm behind their backs — that’s wasted potential.

Control Your Emotions

1. Allow yourself to be impressed. If your goal is to help your GPSGs be the most effective employees possible, don’t focus on outshining them. Let them be the smartest people in the room. Do this by embracing a beginner’s mind. If you think your ideas are always the best, you may miss out on some terrific ones. Show your admiration and respect for your GPSGs’ thoughts and ideas (even if you also had them in mind). It will go a long way toward inspiring them to be the most helpful employees possible.
2. Don’t freak out at mistakes. In a fast-paced environment, it can be tough to tolerate mistakes. But it’s essential. GPSGs need to hone their judgment so they can operate autonomously. You need to give them the freedom to fail. Remember: Your employees aren’t your competitors — they’re aligned with you. Their mistakes are not due to poor intentions.
3. Protect your people. I’ll illustrate with an example. I was the VP of Marketing at Workbrain and my team had prepared an email promoting a webinar. I had proofread the copy but my team sent out an earlier version with the wrong event date. The sales team understandably was peeved. A manager could easily create a mess out of this. Blaming the employee is easy, but that’s a zero-sum solution. There’s a better outcome. I offered myself to the slaughter — “the buck stops here — its my responsibility”. By protecting my employee, I earned her loyalty. Plus, she got to learn. This created a healthy and powerful working relationship. She grew in her role and is now the VP of Marketing at another company.

Be Direct

1. Give feedback. GPSGs have an insatiable desire to learn. Young people in particular crave feedback and want to know the good and the bad of how they’re doing. That’s because they ultimately want to run their own companies. Don’t feed them BS — they’ll catch on. Be straight up.
2. Be transparent. Most managers only share what’s within an employee’s scope. Share everything with your GPSGs: your concerns, your emotions, and your financials. GPSGs are trustworthy. Nothing bad will come from openness — only good (informational alignment). If you share problems, like revenue challenges, GPSGs will naturally activate problem-solving mode.
3. Want a friend? Get a dog. Your job isn’t to be your GPSGs’ best friend. It’s to help them and your shareholders succeed. When they need a boss, be their boss. GPSGs are strong-willed, so you might have to invoke your authority to settle an dispute. Remember: your GPSPs might hate you now, but they will love you later.

You’re on a personal journey just like your GPSGs. You’ll make mistakes too. I do all the time. Don’t worry about that. Focus on the important things: building an amazing product, creating customer value, and building the business. Your GPSGs will too.

P.S. I’m working on a new company called Helpful. If you’re a manager who wants to 10x team communication, you should check us out here to learn more.