Are your organisational stars hard to satisfy?

Talented high performers are valuable assets for any organisation. Recruiting them is full of challenge, retaining them is an even tougher task. In addition, a portion of these high performers emits difficult personalities. If you are struggling in dealing these employees, then this article is for you!

What makes a star employee stand out?

Words that describe a star-quality employee: creative, skilful, like to take charge when it’s time to make decisions. They focus on doing a good job to satisfy customers. Their talents contribute a significant portion to the development of the organisation.

Read more: Duplicating your top employees

According to Harvard Business Review, a high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer. Though talented, they can also be difficult to deal with. Reality is, every organisation has them, they suck the life and time out of everyone in the workplace. In this article, we will be discussing the following particular types.

Identifying difficult personality traits of a high performer

They could belong to one of these four common groups: 

Jerks – they are jealous, egotistical, reprimanding, know-it-all.

Prima Donnas – they like to think they are extra special, indispensable, untouchable, and that the world revolves around them.

Divas – similar to prima donnas, they are “self-important”, “temperamental” and “impossible to please.”

Hothead – they easily lose temper, like to pick out the tiniest flaws and criticise from every angle. 

However, their difficult attitudes can originate not only from their true nature but also from the environment around them. A survey conducted by Profiles International found that:

• 78% of managers did not know how to manage these employees effectively
• 49% of managers could not identify what makes a high performer successful
• 68% of managers did not understand why “difficult” high performers behaved the way they do

Read more: Duplicating your top employees

Ask yourself, do you know how to further enhance your staff’s skills? If you answer “No,” then it is no surprise your staff is acting the way they are. Therefore, the question is how to minimise the impact that these star employees bring whilst preserving their egos. We will discuss more in detail in the next blog post.

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