Autonomy, Accountability And The High Performer

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working on high-stakes deals with no room for error, meaning I needed high performers on my teams. Working with them may sound easy, but it comes with challenges, and managing them is much more than letting them do their thing. Before you learn how to lead them, you need to see and understand them so they become your competitive advantage, not your biggest liability.

So, what qualities define high performers? For me, a high performer is someone with exceptional ability in their field who can perceive, learn and connect the dots faster than others. That said, their brilliance is often deep, not wide, so it’s common to have a technically brilliant mind who’s emotionally tone-deaf, or a strategic genius who lacks communication skills.

The real challenge for leaders is that high performers are often strong, alpha types who reject micromanagement. They need clear direction and space to work their own way, but there’s a thin line between autonomy and accountability within the organization. It’s a tricky balancing act, which is why it's important to reinforce that with greatness comes responsibility. While there’s less babysitting and more freedom, which makes them feel powerful, there’s also more accountability, because when they make a mistake, the fallout is proportionally bigger.

3 Tensions Leaders Face​

1. Giving Freedom Without Losing Visibility

The more space you give high performers, the more present you need to be. Yes, they need space, but you can't disappear entirely. I’ve learned that the answer is staying observant and involved enough to navigate from the backseat without taking over or abdicating responsibility.

When I’m managing an important client, I could, theoretically, hand everything over to a high performer. But I don’t. I stay involved behind the scenes because highly creative people can sometimes veer off course. Being present helps me catch when creativity tips into incorrect assumptions and correct them before it becomes a problem.

2. Acknowledging Brilliance Without Inflating Egos

High performers desperately need recognition, but their intensity makes it important to acknowledge them without overpraising. What works for me is giving specific, genuine recognition that values their brilliance, but doesn't inflate the ego.

However, I also expect something in return. High performers need a degree of self-awareness and a willingness to share their knowledge, empathy and experience. They don’t have to be formal leaders, but they should care about helping others improve. I’ve seen this firsthand; when high performers share, everyone grows. When they withhold, it limits everyone.

3. Encouraging Collaboration, Not Competition

Theoretically, multiple high performers should create better solutions together and learn from one another. But in reality, competition overrides collaboration. I’ve witnessed this in competitive environments like sales, where top personnel gradually become more territorial. When someone is promoted, they’re usually happy to share their knowledge. But when equally ambitious people stay at the same level, knowledge often becomes a guarded competitive advantage.

This is when more active management is needed. Early intervention matters, and you need to be authentic without being hypercritical. The real work—making them operate like a team rather than individual competitors—is harder than it sounds. I’ll admit, I’m still working on the best way to do it, and I suspect the challenge never fully goes away.

The Leader You Need To Become

Managing high performers isn't just about technique. It’s about who you need to become and the mindset you bring. It’s almost as if there's an unseen business dance at play: you follow my lead, I follow you; teach me your ways, let me confront you with mine. One step forward, one step back. Uncomfortable and reciprocal? Yes. But it’s actually how you find the best way to work together.

This, however, requires emotional maturity, which doesn't always come easy. There’s so much ego involved with strong characters that getting them to accept feedback, or even listen to it, can be difficult. But you have to remain demanding because they need direct feedback, and kindness can be read as a lack of belief in their ability.

As leaders trying to understand high performers, we'll inevitably make assumptions that will be wrong sometimes. It’s something I’m guilty of, and that's why I'm obsessed with learning, and always feel inspired when I notice special qualities in someone that they're not even aware of. As leaders, we need to be humble enough to recognize when there are things to learn from anyone, not just high performers. When someone impresses or inspires you, don’t let that moment pass. Point it out and say, "Thank you. Tell me more." Those conversations are where real growth happens.

We are richer as a team when leaders stay genuinely curious about the people around them, because curiosity is what keeps high performers engaged and growing.

Team Resilience Is The Outcome

What I’ve found is that high performers who know how to elevate the team often go on to become strong leaders. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when leaders demonstrate, not just talk about, that everyone has different skills and strengths, and ensure each team member knows where they excel. Not through empty praise but by genuinely and deeply understanding their behaviors, patterns, characters and giving them real space to be themselves. When you do this, something shifts. High performers stay grounded. Arrogance doesn’t undermine the team’s confidence.

The upside of managing high performers is that because they’re running faster and doing everything better, they’re walking proof that the strategy works. This can be incredibly inspiring for the rest of the team. When I’m faced with a high performer saying something is impossible, I say, “Let’s do this together.” And when they see it’s solvable, and feel like they’ve helped, that’s when the real learning happens. From a team perspective, while it may drive quicker results, there’s a cost if you don’t also include the less confident or inexperienced team members in the process.

The real measure of managing high performers is seeing people around me thrive. It makes me happy and drives me to empower and encourage everyone to fulfill their potential. That's what leadership is really about.​

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Originally published: 2 June 2026