Assumption: You’ve built a talented team. Of course, everyone is growing but you’ve spent time as a leader to assemble the best resources you can.

Perhaps you’ve experienced the atmosphere of high performance. There’s a buzz in the air. A momentum develops. Achieving and winning becomes an expectation.

Do you slowly let the air out of the balloon or worse, pop it with a pin?

A manager we work with was called into the boss’ office and told she has to start doing “C work” because her high performance was setting expectations too high. Pop.

That’s a pretty blatant leadership blunder but what about your decisions and how they effect the delicate balance of your high performers?

If you follow NFL football here in the U.S. you couldn’t have avoided the discussion about the Indianapolis Colt’s decision to pull their starters early to avoid injury and get ready for the playoffs. Ultimately the Colts lost the game and gave up on the possibility of the very rare undefeated season after 14 games.

It’s easy to see the logic of the Colt’s leadership decision although there are valid arguments on both sides of the issue. One perspective that deserves a bit more attention though is the effect of the decision on the high performers on the team.

Quarterback Peyton Manning said all the right things after the game but it was clear that he and other players were upset about what happened. They followed the coaches orders. But they are high performers. They want to always be in the game. Their body language clearly equated to a balloon being deflated.

What effect will this have on these players? The shift in momentum is abrupt. Will they be able to gain that momentum back when needed? It’s possible. After all, these are some of the best athletes on the planet. We’ll see over the next few weeks.

The leadership decision in this case incorporates the long-term view. It introduces a sense of reason that honors the ultimate goal. It makes sense. The leader is paid to make these tough decisions. However, it’s also the leader’s responsibility to evaluate the impact of these tough decisions on the high performers. The high performers have a major impact on results. How will they reconcile and embrace the decision even if they don’t initially agree with it? This reconciliation is vital to achieving results.

I hear you, they’re grown ups. They’re professionals. They should be able to handle things like this. It’s their responsibility to deal with it. Yes, that’s true to some extent but the primary responsibility lies with the leader to make sure that everyone, especially the high performers, are in synch with the decisions being made and the direction. It’s in the best interest of the leader to think through all the possibilities and take action to assist the team to reconcile the approach in order to minimize the negative potentials.

There are two parties responsible for the air in the balloon. Are you paying attention to your role as a leader in this equation?

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Photo Credit: Pink Sherbert Photography

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