In every organization, top performers stand out not just for their skills but for their attitude and approach to work. These individuals possess certain traits that set them apart and drive the success of their teams and companies. Here are 15 critical traits of top performers:

Whether you're an avid sports fan or someone indifferent to the world of athletics, there's an undeniable power in witnessing a group of individuals collaborate toward a shared objective. Each team member, whether in the spotlight or on the sidelines, plays a crucial role, propelling each other towards their collective vision of success.

U.S. employers are reshaping their performance management efforts and pay-for-performance programs to give them a much-needed boost, according to a new survey by WTW. The survey found just one in four employers (26%) reported being effective at both managing and paying for performance. The current way of doing things is broken.

As set forth in an internal email and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Ford has implemented a new response to underperforming employees – what many call, quiet quitters.  They can either choose to leave with a severance or be placed on a performance enhancement plan (PEP).

The number one response to coping with toxic employees is to ignore them, with 44% of respondents noting this is their preferred approach, according to new research conducted by Fierce Conversations on toxic workplace culture. Addressing behavior with management comes in second, with confronting them the third-most preferred option.

Human Resources 101 dictates “document, document, document.” The following illustrates one more example of an employer’s successful discrimination defense against a very tricky termination that was initiated right in the middle of an employee’s “protected” FMLA leave.

According to the recently released 2019 Trends in Employee Recognition Survey, conducted by WorldatWork with underwriting support from Maritz Motivation, the number of companies who say they have no employee recognition policy, strategy, or philosophy increased to 19% in 2019 compared to 12% in 2015.

A recent survey by Deloitte shows that 85% of professionals prefer a simple "thank you" as recognition for their day-to-day accomplishments.  While we likely all agree that recognizing others for their work is a positive thing, people differ in "how" they want to be recognized, "for what" and "by whom."

Holding both leaders and employees accountable is one of the biggest challenges in the workplace.  In fact, in a recent CEO Benchmarking Report by The Predictive Index, 18% of CEOs surveyed said “holding people accountable” was their biggest weakness.

What is the definition of value? According to Merriam-Webster it is “The monetary worth of something; a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged; relative worth, utility, or importance.”  Are you showing your employees that they are valued?

Amazon’s culture has certainly made headlines over the years at a minimum as being demanding and at the extreme described as being downright brutal.   In 2015 the New York Times wrote an article about employee life at Amazon and one former human resource director described a facet of the culture as “purposeful Darwinism.”  This is where employees either quit due to the inability to keep up with the demands of the job or there are routine...

One of the most basic supervisory/human resource responsibilities should be documentation of performance and disciplinary actions; however, it is often the most neglected. Notes and write-ups as well as formal performance reviews need to be consistently conducted and maintained on record by the employer.

Creating a solid documentation trail is critical for employers when working with an employee on performance issues.  Documentation creates a written history of the happenings and discussions that occur around specific events.  In a legal proceeding, having documentation about the employee’s past performance is key to obtaining an outcome favorable to the employer.

Employer law suits have increased over the years.  And whether legitimate or not, they cost employers time and money.  Many of these lawsuits are not triggered by blatant abuse of employment laws, but rather simple managerial mistakes.

The same qualities that describe a good listener, describe a good leader: respect, concern, an openness to new ideas, empathy, compassion, curiosity, trust, loyalty, and receptivity.  However, one of the lowest rated behaviors in 360-feedback surveys for managers is listening.

Employees today are more likely to job hop than ever before.  Millennials in particular have earned, whether legitimate or not, a reputation for job hopping.  But the latest research shows that if employees, even Millennials, are engaged and have learning opportunities in the workplace, they are less likely to leave.

According to a new survey by Korn Ferry of nearly 5,000 professionals, being bored and lacking challenge is the number one reason employees will seek a new job in 2018.

A recent report by Fast Company shows that 74% of younger workers leave a performance review unsure about what their managers actually think of them.  And in a 2017 report by TINYpulse, they found that 79% of employees don’t think their organization’s review process is effective.  With the new year upon us, this is the time most organizations do some kind of performance reviews and evaluations, or at least compile reviews from throughout the year and give a year-end...

One of the biggest disciplinary issues HR encounters is a lack of performance or discipline documentation on an employee that a manager wants to terminate.  It is very difficult for HR to proceed with a termination request when the employee has only stellar performance reviews in her file.

Employee appreciation is a key element to achieving high levels of employee engagement and retention.  Employees that feel appreciated have increased productivity and tend to feel better about their work.  But if approached the wrong way, it could backfire.

When strange behavior or certain performance issues are very subtle, should an employer inquire about a medical condition? On one hand, an employer may feel constrained in asking about whether an employee is experiencing a medical problem when an employee exhibits a change in behavior or is not acting the same as usual. Is observable fatigue, irritability, or poor performance just a bad day or is it a medical condition that will raise disability issues. On the other hand, failing performance...

A recent survey revealed that 58% of executives think that their current performance management approach does not drive employee engagement or high performance.  More and more companies are doing away with annual performance reviews all together.  But how are they doing it successfully?

What good has ever come from labeling others?  Does is seem to right to label a student “stupid” or “lazy” or “average”?  If we label them that, aren’t they likely to only perform at that level?  Do we unconsciously not encourage them to do better once we’ve labeled them?  It’s the same with employees.  Labeling your employees as “A”, “B”, and “C” players can be very detrimental...

A study completed by Adobe last month found that performance reviews are not having the affect that managers may think. After surveying 1,500 employees in the United States they found that almost 90% have regularly scheduled performance reviews. Of those employees, more than half said that the reviews have little to no impact on how they perform their job and even went so far as to say that the reviews are just a needless HR requirement.

It is thought that in the war for talent, having a system that rewards performance, a meritocracy, is one that highly talented individuals would gravitate to.  In other words, employees would want to work in an environment where rewarding and promoting employees is based on their merit.  However, implementing meritocracy is not that simple.  One of the major issues many organizations deal with today is how to develop and implement an appropriate performance management...