Why High Performers Still Need Support

Priya Nair

So, Jordan, I- I- I was looking at this scenario the other day, and it is just classic. Picture this: you've got this absolute superstar Senior Instructional Designer. I mean, they are the rockstar of the team, right? Consistent, brilliant. So their L&D Director hands them this high-priority task-- negotiating a hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar contract with an enterprise AI translation vendor. And the Director says, um, "Hey, you've got this, you're the best, let me know when it's signed!" and just walks away. And then... total silence for three weeks.

Jordan Avery

Oh, no. Let me guess. The contract is sitting in a drawer, untouched?

Priya Nair

Worse. The designer is completely paralyzed. They're staring at indemnification clauses and- and SLA legal jargon, absolutely dreading coming to work, while the vendor is- is just emailing them daily. But the Director thought they were being a great, supportive manager by giving them "autonomy."

Jordan Avery

Right, right. But what they actually did was just, well, they threw them in the deep end without a life vest. And this is exactly what Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel, was talking about back in 1983 in his book, *High Output Management*. He called it... Task-Relevant Maturity, or TRM. And the- the big, glaring mistake we make is treating maturity as a permanent, fixed trait of the person, instead of- of linking it to the specific task.

Priya Nair

Yes! "Task-relevant" is the- the- the key phrase there. A person can be a total veteran at instructional design, but a complete novice at vendor contract procurement. But because they're a "senior" employee, we assume they have high maturity across the board.

Jordan Avery

Exactly. Grove defines TRM as the combination of competency-- which is the skills and experience-- and commitment-- which is the confidence and drive-- but specifically for *that* task. When you evaluate competency and commitment, separate the person from the task. If you don't, you fall into what Grove calls "delegation abdication."

Priya Nair

Oof. "Abdication." That- that word is heavy. But it's so true. I mean, Grove wrote, "The presence or absence of monitoring... is the difference between a supervisor's delegating a task and abdicating it." That is the exact line from the book. But, Jordan, why do we do this? Why is it so hard to just monitor the work?

Jordan Avery

Well, because we're terrified of being "that manager." You know, the micromanager. We think checking in on a senior person is- is insulting, right? And on the flip side, the employee is thinking, "If I ask for help with this legal stuff, they're going to think I'm incompetent and don't deserve my senior title." So both sides just... shut down. It's a silence trap.

Jordan Avery

So, how do we actually break that silence? Grove laid out three distinct management styles that map directly to the employee's TRM for a given task. For Low TRM-- where the task is totally brand new, like our designer negotiating that hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar contract-- you need a highly structured approach. You don't just say "figure it out." You provide precise instructions on the what, when, and how. You sit down together, go through a procurement checklist, look at draft templates, and walk them through it step-by-step.

Priya Nair

Okay, wait. Jordan, I have to push back a bit here. If I'm a senior superstar, and you start giving me a step-by-step checklist on how to do my job, I'm going to feel micromanaged. I- I might even feel insulted. How do you do that without making them feel like you're- you're treating them like a junior hire?

Jordan Avery

No, that's- that's a completely fair point. And it- it all comes down to the conversation framing. You have to explicitly separate their general talent from the novelty of this one task. So, you don't say, "Here's how to work." You say, "Look, I know you're an absolute expert at curriculum design, but since software contract negotiation is totally brand new to you, let's co-pilot this first one so you don't have to guess at the legal stuff." It's supportive scaffolding, not micromanagement.

Priya Nair

Ah, "co-pilot." I like that. It- it takes the pressure off. Okay, so that's Low TRM. What about Medium TRM?

Jordan Avery

Right, so for Medium TRM-- say they've done one or two of these negotiations before, but they're still not entirely confident-- you shift to coaching. You define the "what"-- the target pricing, the timeline-- but you let them drive the "how." You're there for regular feedback and, frankly, emotional encouragement, but they're in the driver's seat.

Priya Nair

And then High TRM is the hands-off, "let me know when it's signed" style?

Jordan Avery

Well, almost, but with one crucial detail: you still monitor. For High TRM, you and the employee mutually agree on the objectives up front, and you push them to stretch their goals. But you're still keeping an eye on high-level outcomes to avoid any massive surprises. Even with a high-performing veteran, zero monitoring is still abdication.

Priya Nair

Right, because even the best of us can hit a roadblock we didn't expect. So, how do we actually put this into practice? Like, tomorrow?

Jordan Avery

Okay, here's a concrete tool you can use with your team this week. I call it the "TRM Temperature Check." Instead of delegating a new project and asking, "Any questions?"-- which just gets a silent, panicked nod-- you ask for a number. You say, "On a scale of one to five, how familiar are you with the specific steps required to pull *this particular task* off?"

Priya Nair

Oh, that's brilliant. It's so simple. So if they say a one or a two...

Jordan Avery

Then you immediately schedule a structured run-through, no shame attached. If they say a four or a five, you say, "Awesome, let's agree on the high-level goals and I'll stay out of your hair, but let's check in next week." It normalizes asking for support because we're talking about the *task*, not their overall intelligence or value to the company.

Priya Nair

"Separate the person from the task." That's really the heart of it. Well, this has been incredibly practical, Jordan. Thanks for breaking down Grove's model. Let's try this temperature check with our own teams this week. Talk to you soon.

Jordan Avery

Sounds good, Priya. Bye for now.