How to support your anxious high performer

As a leader, working with high-performing, ambitious team members can provide huge benefits. These team members typically have high goals and are motivated to achieve them.

But what if a high-performer is also anxious about their performance – and constantly worried about reaching that next career level fast? The combination of anxiety and impatience can make providing constructive feedback a challenge.

Here’s why. Ambitious employees who produce quality work are driven to achieve. But they can be so focused on their high goals that they lose sight of needed growth steps along the way. This creates unrealistic expectations for themselves, which can produce anxiety.

When their leader then shares feedback with them, they may perceive it less as helpful guidance and more as a threat to their high-performing identity. The result can be even greater anxiety, self-doubt, and reduced performance.

Here are three steps to providing feedback that can help.

1. Make feedback more frequent.

It may seem counter-intuitive but try having more frequent conversations about performance with the team member. This allows for more just-in-time feedback and deceases anticipation about more formal reviews. It acts as a gradual exposure that decreases the perceived threat. Inserting a piece of feedback on regular one-on-one conversations is a great way to do this.

2. Make sure it’s a transparent process and a two-way conversation.

Feedback doesn’t have to be 100% personal. Acknowledge any workplace factors that may be negatively impacting performance (such as resource challenges or workloads). Transparency about broader issues can engender trust. And by keeping the conversation two-way, your team member knows that you hear their perspective too.

3. Keep the conversation realistic and specific.

Provide concrete and balanced observations of what the team member should keep doing and what next steps they should take for improvement. Refer to the job description where possible to highlight any specifics. By doing this, you can ensure the team member sees the steps and phases they need to go through to achieve their high goals.

Of course, if anxiety continues to build, remind the employee of the steps they can take to manage this proactively. The Employee and Family Assistance Program is often a great place to start.

By managing anxious high performers strategically, you can both empower their improvement and drive your team’s performance to even greater heights.

 

Marie-Hélène Pelletier, PhD, MBA, is a workplace mental health strategist, registered psychologist, and professional speaker who teaches at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business.