Interview with Dr. Mimi Smith, Founder, CEO, and Publisher, Books for Little Hearts

This is a good question. It started with my little girls; they love writing stories, but it was the overwhelmingly emotional feedback from those stories that birthed Books for Little Hearts.

I work closely with a lot of children, so the way I delegate with adults is obviously not the same as with children. I prefer to relate to them in a manner that makes them feel safe and secure and able to respond openly and freely. This is how a great partnership, whether with a child or an adult, usually begins. Working with children helped shape the way I work with adults as well. It's important to be transparent, but also to have great communication skills. There's nothing worse than giving direction that no one understands.

In any business, workflows and processes are put in place. But when people are not turning to the SOPs on file and instead rely on a single individual, that is usually a dead giveaway that the person is the glue holding the department or organization together.

Too often that dependable person eventually becomes less reliable—not because they've become lazy, but because they are drained. A friend who worked in an adjacent department told me they felt they were the only person leadership asked for details about every project, and it had begun to mentally drain them.

One person having all the answers or needing to do the research for everyone should not be the norm. When they went on vacation, processes were put on hold until they returned. Can you imagine managing your own workload while also having to solve the workload of another?

A high performer often excels in their work. Their tasks are completed before deadlines, and when that happens, they offer to help on another project of their own initiative. This is where we should show that we value their initiative.

However, there is a thin line: the organization can become overly dependent on a person when that same person not only attends their own scheduled meetings but also ends up attending everyone else's. The difference is that the former demonstrates a willingness to help, while the latter becomes an expectation even though it is not part of their job description.

As a publisher, I repeat processes a lot. Granted, there are some twists and turns, but for the most part, the steps are repetitive.

Keeping a spreadsheet for my workflow helps streamline projects when taking on new clients. Each tab covers a different part of the same project. When you reach a fork in the road, I jot down the issue that occurred and how I solved it.

I recommend doing this because you will need that resolution again, and documenting processes in real time minimizes wasted time.

When I'm out and need to quickly jot something down, my iPhone notepad comes in handy. I transfer those notes at the end of the day into my Excel spreadsheet.

I take this information and turn it into standard operating procedures. Those become the guidelines for the process and are helpful when bringing on someone else because they have something to follow.

A manager can truly listen, not just hear concerns. As managers, we sit in weekly one-on-one sessions with our employees and sometimes fall into a pattern of only waiting to hear about deliverables and nothing else.

At a regular check-in, it helps a high performer if the manager probes and asks follow-up questions about concerns that arise. Those concerns might indicate bottlenecks or issues that no one has an answer to—areas that can delay a project if left for the high performer to figure out. High performers can do their work well; the problem is when their work depends on another party that does not have an answer.

• Ask follow-up questions about any concerns or unresolved issues that come up.

• End the meeting by asking if there are any other projects or responsibilities outside the scope of that meeting. That will uncover more than they realize.

I've had managers who noticed this right away. In those instances, they called a management meeting. In that meeting, they laid out the issue that had occurred and allowed the responsible leaders to speak up without immediately involving the employee or the entire team.

In my experience, leadership did not know a particular employee had taken on those responsibilities because the employee had never mentioned it. I believe the most practical first step is for leadership to understand where the process failed and who should actually own it before making changes that would disrupt the employee or the team.

Well, for one, don't reward your dependable employees by giving them more responsibilities outside their normal role. Many employees value autonomy, so reward them with more flexibility or by acknowledging their hard work publicly.

It also helps to share knowledge by training other employees on common questions and repeatable processes. That way, when your most dependable employee is on vacation, the work is not put on hold and the company can continue to function without them.

Remember, high performers are often dependable workers. It is in their nature to step in and get things done. Often, we unintentionally turn that dependability into an organizational backup plan. If we notice one person is the go-to person in every situation, stop and evaluate to see what system is not in place or what is not working as it should. The last person we want to lose is a high-performing employee.