One variant of the toxic employee is the brilliant jerk, who, as we discussed earlier, produces individually outsized results, but is so ego-driven that she creates a mixture of fear and dislike in almost everyone around her. The challenge of the brilliant jerk is that she’s probably been rewarded for a very long time for her brilliance, and she clings to it like a life raft. Acknowledging that there is value in the world beyond sheer intelligence or productivity would challenge her place in the world and tends to be a scary proposition for her. So she bullies with her intellect, cutting down dissenting voices in a harsh way, ignoring those she believes are not her equal, and letting her frustration with anything she sees as stupid seep out openly.
These days, most places claim that they don’t tolerate brilliant jerks, but I personally don’t believe that is true. It’s incredibly hard for a manager to justify getting rid of someone who produces great work, even though she’s a drain on everyone around her — especially if this person is only irregularly a jerk. How much jerk is too much? You start to run rings around the idea to try to justify keeping her on. You give her feedback, and she gets a little bit better for a while, but then she gets worse.
The best way to avoid brilliant jerk syndrome is to simply not hire one. Once they’re hired, getting rid of brilliant jerks takes a level of management confidence that I think is uncommon. Fortunately, these folks will often get rid of themselves, because even though you may not have the guts to fire them, it’s unlikely that you’ll be stupid enough to promote them. Right? Let’s hope so.
It takes a strong manager to deal with a brilliant jerk onboard. Expect her to fight you tooth and nail on all feedback. This isn’t going to be easy on either of you. The difficulty is, if she doesn’t see her behavior as a problem, she won’t change it. It’s unlikely that you alone will be able to convince her that her behavior is a problem. All the evidence in the world can’t change a person who doesn’t want to change.
The best thing you can do for your team, in the context of having a brilliant jerk, is to simply and openly refuse to tolerate bad behavior. This may be one of the few instances where “praise in public, criticize in private” is upended. When a person is behaving badly in a way that is having a visible impact on the team, and a way you don’t want your culture to mimic, you need to say something in the moment to make the standard clear. “Please do not speak to people that way; it is disrespectful.” You’ll want to have tight control of your own reaction because delivering this in public is walking a fine line. If you seem emotional, it may undermine you. The offender may write off your feedback as just emotion, or you may come off as picking on the person. Keep the feedback neutral but to the point if you are going to deliver it in the moment, in public. Note that this approach should only be used for behavior you feel is detrimental to the whole group. If you just think the person is undermining you personally, discuss it in private. Your first goal is to protect your team as a whole, the second is to protect each individual on the team, and your last priority is protecting yourself.