What is High Performer

When the learning and development manager of a financial services firm wanted to improve organizational performance, she stated, “I want to understand what the best performers do, and make the rest more like the best.” By studying high-performing salespeople, the organization discovered behaviors and practices that such performers did that made them more successful than their colleagues. Using a structured performance mapping process, the team documented the unconscious competence of in-role experts. A gap analysis of all performers objectively identified, quantified, and prioritized curriculum and performance support needs. This case study follows the journey of an organization that adopted this evidence-based process and now executes the gap analysis every third year to ensure continued relevance amid organizational and industry changes. The approach has yielded a highly regarded curriculum, the elimination of development costs for unneeded courseware, a reduction in training time, and changes in hiring profiles.