An easy way to distinguish someone is to outline how he’s different from his colleagues.
“Nick produces more or less similar to Smith but is happy with 20% less salary, he listens carefully and willing to work at 2 am when requested…”
We do such comparisons frequently but we forget to talk about why we hired Smith in the beginning. Maybe it was one skill, just one, that Smith does so effectively no one else was capable of doing.
And that skill mattered at that time.
It’s easy to compare like the above. It’s easy to push Smith to become some version of Nick. Much better is to pause and reflect whether you still need Smith’s that skill or not.
If yes then what’s the need of transforming Smith into maybe some less than excellent version of Nick?
If no then isn’t it win-win-win to make it clear to Smith so that he can find someone who is looking for that skill?
