I guess you are very conversant with what stars are, aren’t’ you? In the words of Robert H. Schuller, ‘Elect the best, no matter the tag.’ Star employees have unique combinations of knowledge, skills, competencies, experience, intellect, character, emotional intelligence and other attributes that make them unique and sought for. Again quoting Olakunle Soriyan – CEO STN Group in Nigeria, ‘Becoming a star worker, or what I call catalyst player, is a product of a combination of factors beyond intellect – factors such as maturity, emotional balance, courage, patience, staying power or even fortitude or resilience. I call it character…..’ Now, who does not want top-class productivity and results?
Every enterprise or organization desires stars or very high performance employees. Many organizations however prefer to search for stars and engage them. You might be that kind. However, you can also develop your own stars. Developing your stars require quite an investment of time, finances and other resources over time. This strategy has its pros and cons. Don’t you think so? I know you may ask me why waste time doing this when you can easily find ready-made stars in the job market. Anyway, what benefits or advantages does your enterprise gain from developing its own stars? What about the drawbacks related to this approach? Is it worth the pain? Let’s consider the following.
On the other hand, what things may make you think twice regarding developing your own stars?
Some organizations today prefer to develop their own stars due to reasons stated above. Many however prefer the easier approach of sourcing externally, at whatever cost. The choice is yours – develop internally or source externally. Beyond getting the stars, there are several other considerations you need to have to enable the stars perform. Sometimes organizations mismanage stars and hence a high rate of ‘star turnover’. A closer look at such enterprises reveals reasons why they can’t retain stars. I do hope your enterprise is not one of those anyway! Your enterprise should be star-compatible!
Till then,
The Wise Entrepreneur