Hard-to-Handle Top Performer? Here’s What To Do.

With SaaS company culture as an important competitive edge for recruiting and retaining the best employees, you have to consider how difficult employees impact the team. When those difficult employees are top performers, the decision to let them go can be agonizing. Here’s a simple answer.

Transcript: Hi! I am Anna Talerico with Married2Growth. Here’s an important management topic that we all face. It’s not specific to SaaS, but it is an important part of building a SaaS culture that helps you hire and retain the best team members.

This is a tough topic: Should you part ways with a difficult employee who is also a top performer?

The answer is always yes. Now, I don’t mind working challenging people—sometimes brilliant people are the most challenging to work with. But I do mind team members who cause drama, disruption, and distraction to the workplace. You aren’t going to create a utopia where every employee loves each other and is perfect, where everyone wants to be best friends and no one ever rubs people the wrong way. But that doesn’t mean you have to tolerate difficult, toxic behavior that brings everyone down. 

Of course, first, attempt to coach for better behavior. Talk with the employee about what needs to change. Be open and candid about why this is important and what your expectations are. But if you don’t see immediate, sustained change then you need to part ways. 

You can lull yourself into thinking it isn’t that bad. You can lull yourself into thinking that you are blowing it out of proportion (or that someone else is). You can lull yourself into thinking the difficult person can, and will, change. You can lull yourself into thinking their performance is so strong that it is worth turning a blind eye to their bad behavior. 

The reality is that a difficult person impacts your company, your culture, and your results. The difficult person is distracting. The difficult person is poison. The difficult person undermines your leadership because people wonder why you tolerate it. 

Stop wasting energy agonizing over this. Know the answer is actually pretty clear-cut. And good luck. Really. I know it can be hard to part ways with someone who is delivering results but making everyone miserable while they do it. So, that’s it for now. I hope this was helpful. Let me know what you think. And Thanks so much for watching.