After graduating from Harvard Business School with highest honors, Jane rapidly moved up the corporate ladder at a large advertising firm, racking up promotions and responsibilities all along the way. By the time she became the company’s creative director, she was, in everyone’s estimation, an “A player”— one of the organization’s most gifted and productive employees. But although she received an extraordinarily generous pay package and had what some people considered to be one of the most stimulating jobs in the company, Jane was talking to headhunters behind the scenes.
How to Keep A Players Productive
Burnout can affect even the most promising employees. In this piece, the author — an executive coach, management consultant, and former faculty member of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School — argues that if you don’t carefully manage the often unconscious need A players have for kudos and appreciation, they will burn out in a way that is damaging to them and unproductive for you. The key lies in understanding what makes your A players tick. The author suggests that the best way to support these top performers is to offer them authentic praise, help them set boundaries, and teach them to play nicely with their subordinates. These A players can be among the hardest to manage — but if you invest in them, you can multiply their value to your organization many times over.
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