How Perform Helps Managers Retain and Motivate Top Talent

Retaining and motivating top talent is one of the biggest challenges businesses face today. With employees demanding more from their workplace, whether it’s clear growth opportunities, personalised support, or a strong sense of belonging, managers hold the key to keeping high performers engaged and committed.

But here’s the catch: most managers aren’t equipped with the tools or insights they need to understand what truly motivates their teams. That’s where Perform comes in.

At Perform, we give managers the behavioural insights, training, and coaching they need to drive retention, boost motivation, and build high-performing teams. Let’s explore how we solve this problem for businesses like yours, and tackle the biggest challenges managers face when trying to retain top talent.

The Challenge: Why High Performers Leave

High performers don’t just leave for better salaries or perks, they leave because their needs as top talent aren’t being met.

Here are the common reasons high performers become disengaged and start looking for opportunities elsewhere:

1. Lack of personal growth: They want to feel challenged and supported in developing their skills.
2. Misalignment with their manager: Poor communication or a lack of understanding between managers and team members often creates friction or disengagement.
3. Unclear goals and expectations: High performers thrive on clarity and purpose, but without these, they feel lost.
4. A lack of recognition: When their contributions go unnoticed, they feel undervalued and unmotivated to go above and beyond.

To retain and motivate your top talent, managers need to know how to address these pain points. And that’s where Perform steps in to close the gap.

How Perform Tackles the 4 Biggest Challenges Managers Face

1. Challenge: Lack of Personal Growth Opportunities

High performers crave opportunities to learn, grow, and be challenged. When these opportunities are absent, they quickly disengage.

How Perform Helps:
Perform equips managers with the tools to provide meaningful growth opportunities, even when traditional resources like promotions or formal training are limited. Through:

• Bite-sized, practical training modules, managers can identify stretch assignments or career development paths tailored to individual employees’ strengths.
• Team behavioural insights, managers can align development opportunities with what truly motivates each team member, ensuring that growth feels personal and impactful.

For example, Perform might help a manager recognise that one team member thrives on creativity and suggest a project requiring innovative problem-solving, while another values mastery and would excel with more technical skill-building tasks.

2. Challenge: Misalignment Between Managers and Team Members

Every manager brings their own style to the table, but when that style clashes with an employee’s behavioural preferences, friction can emerge.

How Perform Helps:
Perform provides detailed behavioural insights about both the manager and their team, helping managers adapt their leadership style to better align with individual team members. This includes:

• Understanding whether employees prefer proactive or reflective approaches, autonomy or structure, or public or private recognition.
• Coaching managers on how to adjust their communication and support strategies to match those preferences, improving alignment and engagement.

For example, a manager who tends to be highly directive may learn that their high-performing employee thrives on autonomy. Armed with this insight, the manager can shift their approach, fostering trust and motivation instead of inadvertently creating frustration.

3. Challenge: Unclear Goals and Expectations

High performers thrive when they have clarity, knowing exactly what’s expected of them and how their contributions tie into larger organisational goals.

How Perform Helps:
Perform gives managers the resources to set clear, actionable goals and align them with both individual and team priorities. Through:

• Goal-setting templates that help managers define specific, measurable, and realistic targets.
• Feedback scripts that ensure managers communicate expectations effectively, whether it’s during one-on-one meetings or team discussions.
• Training modules on creating alignment between organisational objectives and individual aspirations.

Perform ensures that high performers have a clear understanding of their role and feel a strong sense of purpose in their work.

4. Challenge: Lack of Recognition and Motivation

One of the fastest ways to disengage high performers is to overlook their contributions. However, many managers struggle to recognise and reward their team effectively.

How Perform Helps:
Perform provides managers with practical tools and guidance to ensure high performers feel seen, valued, and motivated. This includes:

• Feedback and recognition scripts, so managers can deliver timely, meaningful praise that resonates with individual employees.
• Behavioural insights to help managers understand what kind of recognition motivates each team member, for example, public recognition for some, and private appreciation for others.
• Same-day coaching, enabling managers to respond quickly and appropriately when employees achieve milestones or demonstrate exceptional performance.

This personalised approach to recognition not only boosts morale but also deepens employee loyalty and commitment.

The Results: How Perform Transforms Retention and Motivation

With Perform, businesses can overcome these challenges and see measurable results:
✅ Higher retention rates: Managers equipped with behavioural insights and practical tools can create an environment where high performers want to stay.
✅ Improved motivation and engagement: Personalised leadership helps employees feel seen, valued, and inspired to excel.
✅ Enhanced manager confidence: With same-day coaching and bite-sized training, managers gain the skills they need to lead effectively in any situation.

Why Perform Is the Solution Your Business Needs

We know that retaining and motivating top talent isn’t easy, but it’s essential for any organisation’s success. Perform makes it possible by giving managers:

• Team behavioural insights to understand and unlock their team’s potential.
• Continuous bite-sized training to help managers grow and adapt.
• Same-day coaching to provide immediate support when challenges arise.

When you invest in your managers with Perform, you’re investing in the future of your organisation.

Ready to Retain and Motivate Your Top Talent?

If you’re rethinking how to develop your managers let us help you. 

We’ve spent over 20 years specialising in manager development, and our management development platform Perform has 4x more engagement than traditional learning platforms - so we really do know how to engage managers in learning and embed it into the moments that matter, not just add more to the to-do list.

Book your free Manager Effectiveness Audit call where we’ll:

✅ Review your current manager development strategy

✅ Identify capability gaps using our proven framework

✅ Give bespoke recommendations to embed learning into your flow of work - and boost engagement without overwhelming managers

✅ Share 3 personalised actions with practical next steps and ideas you can use right away

Book Here

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