High-potential productive performers are all the rave these days. Like a young adult looking to own the latest pair of sneakers, leaders are looking for the powerhouse performers—individuals who are innovative, engaged, and bringing their best ideas.

We want employees who want to work for the organization, making their best contribution while in exchange they are offered great pay, benefits, and flexibility. Sounds ideal, right? However, one problem often exists: our own biases can sometimes get in the way of drawing out really great performance.

Some leaders may be treating these powerhouse employees as if they were pop tarts simply because they find it difficult to think about a challenge from the perspective of a less-experienced or less-informed individual. This is referred to as the curse-of-knowledge bias.

As leaders we are responsible and, ultimately, accountable for the outcomes of larger projects and initiatives. As much as we need to produce results, we sometimes fail to turn to the very people who can help us most. We worry that they may not have the type of experiences that we, as leaders, possess or that make us believe we can achieve the outcomes we need most through their sometimes limited experiences or exposure. Therefore, we treat these performers as pop tarts, still green around the ears, when in fact they have the capability and capacity to do much more.

What leaders must remember is that different can be better. Every employee carries a diversity of thoughts because of their varied education, work, and life experiences. The best leaders are able to identify and leverage these experiences to the advantage of both the organization and the employee.

Identify your powerhouses

High performers walk away from organizations because of the lack of engagement, opportunity to make a significant contribution, and the feeling their talents aren’t being leveraged effectively. So, how do we keep a powerhouse performer from walking out the door? First identify the powerhouse.

There are three ways to identify a powerhouse performer:

1. They ask really great and thought provoking questions.

2. They are known as doers and deliver on results.

3. They challenge the status quo.

Number 1 and number 2 will get anyone noticed, but we take a turn for the worse when we get to number three. This point, coupled with the other two, is what differentiates a pop tart employee from a powerhouse performer. A powerhouse performer plays by the “see and say” rule of conduct—a leader’s reaction will determine if the powerhouse will actually stay.  A powerhouse employee will see opportunities for improvement, they will then say something, and finally they’ll wait for progress, but not for too long.

Pop Tart employees, on the other hand, are the ones who appear to be powerhouse performers, but they fall down on delivering consistent results. Often, they appear more attractive in group settings that allow them to join popular conversations and discussions, but in isolation they are unable to deliver.

In addition, the typical pop tart employee will allow their conduct, attitude, and behavior to interfere with the organization’s ability to truly leverage its talent.  This false sense of capability can cause many leaders to focus time, energy, and investment on helping a pop tart move to powerhouse status, when in reality the talent just isn’t there.

Develop your powerhouses

Leaders would do well to identify powerhouse performers, spend time developing high potential up and comers, and reduce turnover of these employees.

• Listen to their suggestions and ideas for innovation. Not all ideas will hit the target, but you’ll get more mileage out of their performance by taking their suggestions seriously.

• Recognize the merit in the diversity of their experiences, though different from your own, their fresh perspective may offer you the insight and innovation you’ve been looking for.

• Provide them (and all of your employees) with feedback, direction and encouragement. These individuals thrive on knowing if they are headed in the right direction. To do so can give them fuel to want to do more and better the next time.

• Take more risks. There are no guarantees that every idea will turn into an overnight success, but employees learn from their mistakes, allow them to make one or two, they become stronger and better because of it and the organizations benefits from the constant generation of ideas.

If you are looking for innovation and creativity as a way to improve your competitive advantage, instead of turning to a team of outside consultants, you may just need to tap your talent and watch their performance explode!