Keep an Eye on Your High-Functioning Employees

By Marly DiFruscio

Most leaders know them when they see them: the employees who you can always count on to deliver, and then some. These are your "high-functioning employees". The high performers who achieve the company's goals are recognized as skilled, focused, and successful.

But how many of these staff members are suffering while they are "high-functioning"? There is a different side to be aware of when it comes to those high-performing employees. This could be an underlying sign of anxiety and/or depression.

It's hard to spot this from the get-go. This is because those that are high functioning with anxiety or depression always come across well. They always appear organized, focused, and very successful. However, on the inside, they are constantly overthinking, worrying, anxious, or even upset and fearful.

Good leaders will be able to recognize this and offer up comfortable environments. There you can not only discuss this but ensure that they lean towards the high functioning side and less towards the negative aspects in this setting. This environment should also include proper support through the mental health system. There will be no repercussions on their career or their professional lives at all.

There are also several other strategies a leader can do to ensure that not only do they have this high-functioning staff but that the overall team ends up becoming successful and able to benefit.

What type of leader is necessary for high-functioning employees?

Nearly 20% of US adults are considered to have an anxiety disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). So with many of them considered to be falling under the ‘high functioning’ group, there’s a strong possibility as a manager or leader you’ll eventually get an employee like this.

By understanding what’s happening in the background, you’ll be able to maximize their potential and help fuel their anxieties into productive areas. Do remember that even though you're a leader, not a therapist. There's still a lot you can do with these types of employees.

Normalize the discussion

The first place you want to focus your attention as a leader is to ensure that you allow for an open discussion about mental health with zero judgments. That means enabling transparency and an open-door policy to discuss any issues. If your high-functioning staff starts to feel stressed or burnt out, then make sure they have a way to let you know and take appropriate action.

Have self-check ins

Going beyond the transparency is to take a proactive approach to check-ins with the employee themselves and with leadership. Even doing this on a monthly basis during a weekly update on the work being done is enough. Having these check-ins will help you gauge if your high-functioning employee is overworking and spiraling in the wrong direction.

Help them prioritize

This is a good idea with any type of employee, but especially those that are high functioning. This is because additional work actually ends up being a coping mechanism.

You need to ensure that they have a healthy amount of work (it can be more than others). However, there shouldn't be so much that they start to feel burdened and overwhelmed. This leads to even more anxiety and less productivity.

Praise good work

High-functioning employees are perfectionists who never think their work is good enough. They need to hear praise for more minor victories and an overall good job so they can start associating their work habits with "good enough".

Having items such as a 'win of the week' or praising them for their consistent progression will help them eliminate the negative thoughts they have of not being perfect every time.

Find the right balance

Keep in mind that there is something known as positive pressure. High-performing employees excel in this medium. But it’s a quick slide to go from positive pressure to something like chronic stress, where the entire team suffers and goes into survival mode. This will have a compounding effect on high-functioning staffers.

So it's important to combine it with those check-ins to see how much pressure to apply to ensure maximum viability.

Force breaks in the workday

This is extremely important, especially with the shift to work from home strategies. You want to make sure that your staffers unplug for periods of time during the day.

Have them take their lunch away from their computer or have periods during the day (and after working hours) to unplug from work completely. You can even praise high-functioning people when they do it for another avenue of positive reinforcement.

Communicate more often than not with high-functioning employees

Part of the anxiety that comes from high functional workers is that their mind is always racing with what-if scenarios. This means they're consistently questioning everything, including the status and situation at work.

So by having clear and effective communication, even if it seems overly zealous, you'll be putting them at ease with the peace of mind. This is because there's a good chance they were thinking and analyzing something you clarified through your communication.

Invest in your staff

Whenever possible, investing in your staff is always a good idea. For a highly functional team, it serves a dual purpose. First, it helps ease their mind off work and focus on something else for their active brains. Essentially giving them a break of sorts. Then it also improves their skill set, as they’ll be keener to learn and absorb information and thus be much more competent in their overall work.

Mitigate failure in high-functioning employees

No matter how good someone is, there's always a chance for failure. You should always treat failure as a learning opportunity, not as a place of scolding or correction if possible. The high functional staffers are already torturing themselves internally and are already expecting to have criticism for their failure and think it's justifiable.

This is yet another channel of positivity to show high-functioning employees that it's ok to fail or make mistakes. It will also reassure that they'll do it better next time without the fear of repercussion. Your high functional staffer already wants to excel, so you don't need to motivate them negatively.

In the end, as a leader, understand the value of this category of employees. Also, know that if you ever have the benefit of getting one under your team, with the right type of patience and openness, you will always have a star player in your company. One who is ready to try new things and work to excel in everything that's handed to them. You want to be able to nurture these highly valuable types of workers, and these strategies will help you get there.