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The Lion King | 33
positions that must function effectively if the
company is to attain its desired results. Any
job that could powerfully impact a com-
pany qualifies for this designation. It should
be noted that a job that is critical to perfor-
mance today may not be tomorrow.
The question or challenge for an employee
who wants to remain perpetually relevant is
‘Are you a top performer or Are you playing
a critical role?’ Except you are doing one of
these two, you may soon become history in
that organization.
The aspiration of any forward looking
employee should be to operate as a top
performer since a critical performer runs the
risk of relegation based on possibility of shift
in corporate focus and value. It is important
to note that the human resource strategy of
a professionally managed organization usu-
ally is to turn every staff to a top performer
while simultaneously working on producing
as many players as possible for each of the
critical positions in order to save the organi-
zation from key man risk. Failure to do this
may open the organization to being held to
ransom by occupiers of such positions and
also make succession difficult whenever a
vacancy occurs either through voluntary or
involuntary exit.
Finally it is important to mention that an or-
ganization’s people management strategy
pays special attention to top performers and
critical performer positions. Top perform-
ers are recognized and rewarded for their
outstanding contributions while occupiers of
critical performer positions are replicated to
overcome succession and retention chal-
lenges. To fail to do these is to plan to fail.
In conclusion each employee is in a position
to determine how he or she will be treated
in an organization. For you to secure your
employment permanently you must be a
top performer. Occupying a critical position
may also secure it for as long as the compa-
ny focus is on the role you are playing and
you are the only one skilled in the art.
Remember that as staff members keep em-
barking on continuous improvement activi-
ties in keeping with the GMD’s culture brief
series, they will surely be pushing the bound-
aries which may include venturing into new
areas, acquiring new skills and competences
and taking up new roles and challenges.
Implementing continuous improvement and
boundary pushing from the corporate angle
may have devastating impact on whoever
thinks being stationary is an option. Even the
world is in a state of flux so refusing to grow
or improve cannot be an option.
The choice is yours!