Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg studied the pros and cons of recruiting high performers (what he called ‘stars’).

After examining the careers of more than 1000 high-performing analysts at Wall Street investment banks and conducting more than two hundred frank interviews, Groysberg came to a striking conclusion:

Star analysts who change firms suffer an immediate and lasting decline in performance.

Their earlier excellence appears to have depended heavily on their former firm’s general and proprietary resources, organizational cultures, networks, and colleagues.

There are a few exceptions, but most stars who switch firms turn out to be meteors, quickly losing luster in their new settings.

I don’t know of any specific research like this for the real estate industry, but some of the underlying issues affecting future performance would certainly apply.

Emerging High Performers.If you’re going to recruit high performers, you should be aware of the inherent risk that past performance may not duplicate itself in your company.

It may be better to try to recruit emerging high performers.

These could be new real estate agents who you believe have transferable skills and talents.

Or it could be experienced agents who have stagnated and not reached their full potential with their current companies.

Boomerang Agents.On the flip side, if a high performer left your organization and suffered a decline in performance, you may want to share this research with them.

They’re not damaged goods.  They just need to be in an environment that has been proven to help them perform at a high level.

Growing, retaining, and hiring the right high performers (boomerangs) improve your odds of success.

Betting everything on recruiting high performers from your competitors is risky.