Coach Your Potential Stars (The “B Box”)

We have all been in the potential star box of the Star Chart, particularly when starting our careers or beginning a new job. Sometimes potential stars are just young or new to the position. A 16-year-old may share all of your right attitudes, but needs to mature before he becomes more productive. Or, you may have made a new and great hire, but she isn’t going to be terribly productive until she has completed one business cycle with you and gained experience. This problem will largely take care of itself.

Though we have all temporarily occupied the potential star box at various points in our careers, it isn’t a box that’s meant to be lived in. It’s the box we want our employees to pass through on their way to the star box.

As you recall from Chapter 5, folks who land in the potential star box score high on the right attitude axis but low on the effectiveness axis. Typically, two kinds of people land in this box: those who aren’t productive because they’re still learning, and those who have settled in for a long winter’s nap with less-than-great performance on a more-or-less permanent basis. The still-learning group is easy to deal with, because they aren’t in the box for very long; they’re just passing through. Those who want to nest in this box are tougher, and they will be the main focus of this chapter.

6 Telltale Signs of Someone Who’s Nesting in the Potential Star Box

You can easily identify potential stars, because, for the most part, you like them. The reason that they are still around, in fact, is that they’re likeable, despite their lack of productivity. Sometimes people in this box of the Star Chart aren’t good enough to rehire, but aren’t bad enough to fire, either. You feel “on the bubble” about them.

Potential stars have at least some of the right attitudes that are important to you. They may qualify for this box by a whisker, but they’re not hard on you or the organization. They aren’t terrible; they certainly aren’t great either. You find yourself feeling unsatisfied with their performance, and wishing they would “step it up” and be more productive. In most companies, they stay around for a long time and their under-performance is never addressed.

Here are the top indicators that someone fits into this Star Chart box:

1. He Doesn’t Show Passion for His Work

Though he may enjoy his work on some level and even complete it in a mostly satisfactory way, it’s obvious to others that he doesn’t have a lot of passion. He may even openly admit this to coworkers, talking at length about what his true passion is. If he had the choice, he’d stay home every day instead of go to work. These folks make a lifestyle out of “working for the weekend.”

Obviously, this type of employee doesn’t score a 10 on the “right attitudes” axis, but he might score a six, which still puts him in the potential star box.

2. She Doesn’t Show Much Interest in Improving

She may not be content with her level of pay or her work conditions, but she is content with the contribution she’s making. She isn’t interested in going to seminars (unless it means a day away from work or going on a fun trip), taking courses, or reading books on how she can get better at her job, particularly if it requires any time commitment beyond her regular work hours.

In short, she’s not interested in becoming a master at what she does. She would rather maintain the status quo, and doesn’t love seeing the boat rocked. Again, she is too good to fire, but not quite good enough to rehire, either.

3. He Needs Support From Others to Accomplish His Basic Duties

He may be willing—even eager—to learn, but at the end of the day, he needs help and support from his colleagues to get the job done. Your heart may sink as you see him approaching, full of cheeriness and incompetence, asking for something from you yet again. He may remind you of the kid in middle school who just kept putting his hand up to say, “Teacher, I don’t get it.” When she said, “What don’t you get?” He would respond with, “I don’t know. I just don’t get it.” And it never got better; he never got it.

Many potential stars don’t seem to grow in their confidence or ability over time, and this actually may not be their fault. It could be that they’ve been promoted beyond their abilities, aren’t suited to the job, or don’t have the aptitude for it.

4. She Protects Her Job by Hoarding Information

She may feel insecure about her standing in the company for a variety of reasons. Maybe she notices the lack of standing ovations coming from her boss. Maybe she knows her performance isn’t as good as other people’s.

In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to information hoarding or turf wars (fighting for something other than the good of the company). Hoarders believe that they’re more secure if all of the information relevant to their job remains as their own “tribal knowledge”; in other words, it stays in their head, doesn’t get put on paper, and certainly doesn’t get taught to anyone else. Any suggestion of doing these things (which, by the way, would safeguard the company, because none of us can guarantee we’ll be able to work another day) are seen as a threat to her power, and she resists them—sometimes with a quiet will of iron—but resists nonetheless.

They can be right about winning job security through information hoarding, but only if the leader allows themselves to be held hostage to this tactic.

If you’ve worried about an employee who is a bottleneck due to the vast amount of information that resides with her alone, and who is reluctant to share it, you know that you’re likely dealing with someone from the potential star box. However, if this employee starts using information as a weapon, she belongs to a lower box. More on that to come.

5. He Measures Hours, Not Productivity

Somewhere along the way, the potential star has bought into the idea that it’s about time spent, not outcomes accomplished. He may scramble to find hours to add to his tally, such as time spent commuting, waiting for airplanes, and sitting alone in hotel rooms, or untraceable and unverifiable hours “worked at home.” In the absence of productivity, I remain agnostic about the reality of these sorts of claimed hours.

6. She Is Willing to Work Hard, Provided Her Incentives Increase

This is a particularly bad sign, because it indicates an entitlement mindset. Great people need to be well compensated, but it’s clear that they’re working for something other than money. Ironically, when money is a person’s aim, she often doesn’t end up with much of it.

The best businesspeople I know do not work for money. They work hard because they want to make a difference in someone’s life, or because they have passion to implement an idea, or fix something that’s broken. For many of them, money is an incidental that they certainly enjoy, but they view much it in the same way a pioneer farmer of the past viewed grain: it tasted great as a nice loaf of bread, but its main purpose was to be used as seed to plant larger fields for the next year.

When an employee is fairly paid, but still needs prodding and incentivizing to get her job done, it’s a sign she’s stuck in the potential star box.

Giving Potential Stars the Support They Need to Shine

As a young man, Clint worked for his father, who became very critical of his work performance. He decided that Clint was a B-boxer, and finally let him go. Clint was angry, and drifted through his dad’s industry in a series of low-level jobs. He didn’t really know what to do with his life, as he had always assumed that he would be his dad’s successor.

As time went on and Clint gained experience outside the family business, he began to see his dad’s business from a different perspective. He could see that change was coming to the industry overall, so he joined a large company that he believed was positioned to catch the wave of the future. He worked there for a few years, made some good friends, and one day left to found his own business.

Twenty-five years later, Clint is one of the leading players in his entire industry throughout North America. Many of his former bosses from his days at the large company work for him now. He has been featured in industry magazines and is looked up to as someone who really “gets it.” Clint and his dad reconciled, and today his dad recognizes that his talented son was only passing through the potential star box.

Potential stars sometimes start nesting in the B box of the Star Chart. Take note of these nesters, as they require your intervention. Nesters never get better on their own, but they may improve if you take the time to help them move forward. Whether they’re nesting or just passing through this box, the ideas that follow are the most effective strategies in your HR toolkit to prod and develop your potential star. The one non-negotiable with someone in this box of the Star Chart is that he or she must eventually move into the star box.

Train and/or Coach Them

You may have an employee who is a good personality fit for her role and is well liked by coworkers, but lacks the skills required for her job. In the Star Chart, she scores high on right attitudes, but low on effectiveness. If she had stronger computer skills or had a forklift ticket, or could read a profit and loss statement, or had deeper knowledge of the product, she could be a star. This is a comparatively easy fix. Help this employee get the training that she needs so she can move out of the potential star box and into the star box.

Discussions with potential stars should be friendly and earnest. If these people really do fit in this box, they want to move into a star box, and are upset to find that they aren’t there already. These are good people. They share many of the attitudes that are important to you. They’re worth your coaching efforts. Investing time in them can shape them into the successful contributors that they really do want to be.

Clarify Your Expectations

Many employees simply lack self-awareness. This is a very common problem, and it’s not going to solve itself. Frequently people in the potential star box assume they are stars—that is, if they even reflect on their performance at all. This is actually one of the most common causes of people living and nesting permanently in the potential star box. In truth, no one has ever cared enough to have a reality conversation with them, telling them that they are living in a less-than-wonderful box and what, specifically, they need to do to get out of it.

A CEO once requested that I sit with a senior manager who was struggling in his role. I showed the employee the Star Chart and asked him where he would plot himself. He looked at it for a long time and, with tears in his eyes, confided to me that he felt sometimes that he was not a star, but only a potential star.

The CEO joined our discussion, and I asked him to outline specifically what changes would need to happen for him to consider this person a star performer. He listed three things that were all quite do-able. I asked the employee if he felt that he could accomplish these things, and he replied with an enthusiastic “yes.” He had no idea that the CEO had these expectations for him, and was confident that he could achieve them, now that he knew what they were. Within a couple of months, and with the help of some job coaching, he had arrived in the star box. Several years later, that person was still in the star box and doing just fine.

Sometimes helping an employee gain a new sense of self-awareness and clarifying your expectations are all that are needed for him to get into the star box.

Change Their Role

A person can get stuck in the potential star box because she is in a role that isn’t really a fit for her personality, skill set, or level of intelligence. When an employee shows up for work every day comparing her weakness to everyone else’s strength, it’s not terribly motivating. An extroverted people person that gets stuck in data entry is not going to be happy, and no matter how great her work ethic is, she is unlikely to move beyond the potential star box. In fact, it’s much more likely that she’ll bounce all over the bad regions of the Star Chart as her confidence and attitude erode.

A person who doesn’t want to deal with people and conflict isn’t going to be happy in a management role, no matter how great her attitude is and how much her values line up with the company’s. It will take your specific intervention to help sort out her role and move her into a seat that will maximize her strengths.

I once worked with a CEO client who elevated a long-time star into a senior role. He had always shown a great attitude, was solidly productive, and was highly respected by his colleagues. Everyone was happy for him and felt that he deserved the promotion.

Things seemed to be going well for the first couple of months, but soon this person seemed to be drifting out of the star box and migrating through the other three boxes. It became impossible to know how he would show up on any given day. Some days he would come to work as a star, some days he seemed like a productive-but-difficult (which was not in character for him), and other times he seemed like an outright fireable wrong fit.

Finally, the CEO sat with him and had a serious heart-to-heart talk, and the employee said, “I used to love coming to work. I knew what to do in my role and I was good at it. Everyone liked me, and I really enjoyed my job. Now, I can’t sleep because of all of the stress I’m under. People who used to be my friends look at me with suspicion. I feel overwhelmed by everything that has to get done, and I hate all of the conflict this job requires me to deal with.”

After some negotiation, they agreed that he would step back into the role he had before taking the promotion. He instantly was back to being the star that he had been before the change, and everyone was happy.

Boost the performance of your potentials stars! Here’s the recipe:

• Coach and train them.

• Clarify your expectations.

• Change their role.

• Have a reality conversation with them.

People Action Steps

• Decide whether your potential stars are en route to the star box, or have become permanently comfortable, nesting in the company as an underperformer.

• Assign each employee in the potential star box of the Star Chart five measurable accountabilities for the quarter, and review them in a group setting weekly to increase visibility and accountability.

In Summary

Two types of people typically occupy the potential star box: those who are there temporarily while en route to living permanently in the star box, and those who have begun nesting in that box. New or young employees are plotted there because it will take some time for them to understand what’s going on. Time and training will cure their inexperience. This chapter focuses on the nesters.

These are the six sure signs of a nester:

1. He doesn’t show passion for his work.

2. She doesn’t show much interest in improving.

3. He needs support from others to accomplish his basic duties.

4. She protects her job through information hoarding.

5. He measures hours, not productivity.

6. She is willing to work hard, provided her incentives increase.

Here’s how to help move potential stars to the star box:

• Train and/or coach them.

• Clarify your expectations.

• Change their roles.