Talent at Any Price?

What recruiter wouldn’t want a talented superstar for a client?  Someone with a proven track record of skills, experience and accomplishments?  Talented employees are top performers who get the job done.  They are innovative, creative and produce great work.  They can also be difficult to handle. 

Talented employees can be like talented child stars who get a lot of attention early on.  Lindsay Lohan is a case in point.  Since 2007, Lindsay Lohan has been in an out of jail, court, and rehab as a result of drugs, car accidents, shoplifting and a host of other self-inflicted problems.   In an interview, Oprah Winfrey asked Lindsay Lohan, …”how it felt to be both an adjective and a verb for a child star gone wrong.”   Child stars are child employees, working at a job.  They have a lot of responsibility.  A lot is riding on their performance.  They get a lot of attention, and figure out early that they can manipulate situations and make demands that are easily and quickly fulfilled.  And just like adults, they can crack under the pressure.

Some talented employees can be difficult to handle.  Like child stars, they know how to take advantage of the role they play in an organization.  They can get away with more than a marginal employee, because they bring in business, know how to charm the customers or clients, or truly are talented and do amazing work.  The problem arises when a talented employee becomes so demanding or unmanageable that they affect their co-workers’ performance, morale or the bottom line. 

How far should an organization go to keep a talented but difficult employee?  A Forbes article listed seven ways to manage difficult but talented employees.  Suggestions range from taking care to give them challenging assignments, giving ample feedback, and staying calm when tempers rise.  But is playing into these difficult employees worth the effort?  There comes a time when even the most talented employee has to go.

While management is using techniques to placate the superstar, the rest of the team suffers.  They stand on the sidelines and watch the drama, wondering why management puts up with the disruption.  Employees are always watching and listening. 

Difficult employees who stay on the job can be toxic to the work environment.  Who wants to go to work when there is tension and favoritism? 

The management team suffers as well.  It’s not just the stress of dealing with a difficult employee.  Management loses credibility and respect when they refuse to face the fact that the best thing for the company and the team is to show the difficult employee the door.  Management may be stuck between the proverbial “rock and a hard place,” wondering how to tell the big clients they had to let the superstar go.  Of course, these star employees are on their best behavior with clients and customers. 

Management goes too far and too long to keep employees that despite their talent and contribution are otherwise a destructive influence.  Firing employees is the last thing managers like to do.  But it’s doing the tough jobs for the greater good of the team and the company that managers—as leaders—are called to do.  No one is irreplaceable.  Talent isn’t just about productivity.  It’s about the ability to communicate and build mutually beneficial working relationships.  Getting rid of a problem employee makes room for a true superstar that gets it.

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