Jason A. Belt

Hello Blog-o-sphere! Sorry for the delay, but since starting and then working to onboard with my new company, I have been running at max brain capacity, so I took some time off from the blog. I will be working to post 1 time a week moving forward as I am still easing into this new role with a wonderful company.

All the best and Happy New Year!

JB

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Do you lead a hard-charging employee? Someone that is eager to complete any task, with autonomy, as fast as possible, and obsessed with winning?

I have had the pleasure of working with a few and with each one they had a unique personality, but some common traits.

1. They are very competitive. This group of hard chargers loves any form of competition to separate themselves from the pack of other workers on their respective teams.
2. They can alienate themselves from their co-workers. Unless they are someone that is open to learning and building interpersonal skills to build trust.
3. If they do take the time to build trust with their peers, then this person can be the rising tide of the team that lifts all boats.

As a leader with strategic and tactical demands, we often need a person reporting to us that we can trust with some challenging asks. This person must be self-motivated, trustworthy, and eager to learn.

Queue the hard charger.

In pulling former colleagues of this makeup, the common threads I heard when asking them how we were able to effectively work with one another, all centered around building a cadence of communication and then a foundation of trust that worked for us. Then after that, I took time to explain the ‘why’ we had to do something from a high level along with developing a checklist or plan as a team to drive getting things done. Then the hard charger went charging ahead using a plan or checklist to drive their focus and accomplishments.

As one of my former direct reports put it: ‘You and I built trust and understanding around what was expected, we openly discussed why we had to do X, Y, or Z, and then you gave me a list and I worked to check off each item. Then I reported back when it was done for feedback so I could grow, but also propose and collaborate on what was next based upon the overall why we were there.

I think the key concepts here are building communication cadences that work for you and the hard charger, which then leads to a healthy ‘trust but verify’ relationship dynamic. In this dynamic, you allow the hard charger to work autonomously with built-in check-in or verify points during the project or process. From this relationship, the two of you can then work to form a pattern of planning, doing, and then measuring tasks that need to be completed to further the business. while being focussed on the overall why, or what drives the business forward.

This has worked for me over the years and I truly hope it works for you!