Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

By James Haskett

JAMES HESKETT
James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The annoying employee who makes his numbers while alienating those around him will gain needed attention in the coming months with at least one book about to be published on the subject. This is an age-old problem that most managers handle badly.
You know the story by now. It concerns high-performing employees, known by some as "stars" and by others as "destructive heroes" or "brilliant jerks," those who generate a great deal of business while creating problems for colleagues. They are demanding to the point of being abusive, they make promises to clients that their colleagues cannot meet, they take too much credit for success, and they generally are unable to adhere to commonly shared values of members of the organization.
The management response to this kind of situation is too often ineffective. By their own admission, their managers are reluctant to rock the boat as long as the numbers continue to be good. In doing so, they underestimate the costs to the organization, including the loss of other talent. And when they do act, they do so much too slowly, often after most of the damage has been done.
Jack Welch has written about the phenomenon of what he calls "jerks" or "bullies" from his own experience. At GE they were referred to as a "Type 4" manager, "the person who delivers on all the commitments, makes the numbers, but doesn't share the values." In 1992, Welch made the dramatic announcement at a companywide meeting that four out of the five managers being asked to leave the company had delivered good financial performance but were shown the door because they "didn't practice our values." (By the timing of his actions, he also illustrated one problem of managing the