A Cancerous Work Culture

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is one of the most transformative leaders in the business world today. Since becoming CEO, he has turned Microsoft's fortunes around, making it the most valuable company in the world for the first time since 2002. Satya accurately believes that a winning culture means moving from a know-it-all mindset to a learn-it-all one.

We’ve all worked with a know-it-all or brilliant jerk or two, right? They’re often gifted, have great ideas, and can be high performers. In short, they’re often a phenom in their discipline - but they’re real jerks. Brilliant jerks, but undeniable jerks nonetheless.

Regardless of how smart or even how productive such employees might be, they can actually begin to tear an organization apart from the inside if they don't adopt the organization's values and embrace working collaboratively. Brilliant jerks typically exhibit toxic behavior by their narcissistic personality, bullying and harassing coworkers, rude and disrespectful behavior, gossiping, blaming others, unprofessional and inappropriate communications, negativity to others, and being overly competitive. In short, this is part of why they are referred to as know-it-alls or brilliant jerks.

Leading organizations have cultures that are both healthy and high-performing. When leadership and organizations tolerate, or even reward, brilliant jerks because they perform well, they introduce a cancer into their culture which leads to an unhealthy and low-performing culture. For some leaders, it can be easy to overlook complaints from other staff about a brilliant jerk when they get results or are respected and supported by executive leadership. However, an organization’s true values are ultimately defined by its tolerance of such cancerous and toxic behavior.

The Negativity of Brilliant Jerks

So why are they brilliant jerks? Being brilliant relates to what a person knows, or their competency. Being a jerk relates to who a person is, or their character (or lack thereof.) A brilliant jerk may do an exceptional job delivering competency-based results but typically doesn’t get along well with others. Brilliant jerks permeate the workplace while reducing their leaders’ credibility, lowering their teams’ morale, and reducing their teams’ productivity.

Good performance does not override bad behavior. In the long run, poor organizational culture will erode even the best strategy. If organizations and their leadership don't address or get rid of brilliant jerks, the long term ramifications can be costly. Toxic behavior in the workplace can cause loss of productivity, high turnover, high absenteeism, poor employee health, discrimination or harassment lawsuits, and damaged reputation.?

While toxic and cancerous work cultures are the end result of many factors, it’s generally a combination of poor leadership and individuals who perpetuate the negative culture. It starts with those at the very top. Leaders must lead by example by exhibiting respect, authenticity, integrity, trust, empathy, and appreciation. Some leading organizations, like Netflix, have taken a formal stance on not tolerating brilliant jerks in their organization.?

High-impact leaders do not tolerate brilliant jerks. These leaders have exceptional character. A byproduct of well-developed character is a lack of tolerance for those with poorly developed character. High-impact leaders don’t expect perfection, but they do expect everyone to be intentionally improving and developing their character and positively collaborating with their colleagues.

When leaders rely on the talent of brilliant jerks, or even reward them, they poison their culture and alienate other employees. Good employees have little to no desire to work with people who are rude, condescending, or discourteous to them. Furthermore, organizations will likely lose other top performers who are tired of dealing with brilliant jerks who drive away valuable employees and negatively impact the entire organizational culture.

Teamwork should be valued more than individual contributions. Every employee matters and should be made to feel this way. Leadership sets the tone of the workplace culture and acceptable behavior patterns.?

When a Leader is a Brilliant Jerk

Nothing affects the happiness, health, and stability of employees more than their leaders. So, what happens when an organization has a brilliant jerk in a leadership position? How does that affect the happiness, health, and stability of the employees in the organization? It creates a work culture that is typically described by employees as being “adversarial” and “toxic,” with a climate characterized by a “lack of trust” and bullying.

Unfortunately, in today’s business world it is quite common for brilliant jerks to rise to the top. Why? Because they are seen at high-performers and as strategic thinkers. While this may be the case, the brilliant jerk leaves collateral damage wherever they go. They are not natural collaborators because they see themselves as already having the answers and knowing more than their colleagues.

Given this, organizations shouldn’t hire and promote employees based on great technical skills alone but people who are also a cultural fit. Human Resources departments and hiring managers must change the way they assess and recruit new employees as well as how employees are promoted. The goal should be to hire and promote the right person. The focus should be the person, not the skill.

Value Strong EQ More Than High IQ

Organizations need to recruit and retain talent based on emotional intelligence (EQ), not intelligence quotient (IQ). Research shows that people with strong EQ are more likely to succeed than those with high IQs or relevant experience.

In a business world increasingly dependent on negotiation, compromise, and collaboration, the importance of Emotional Intelligence cannot be understated. According to Harvard Business Review, emotional intelligence (EQ) is “the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers,” and is the leading differentiator between employees whose IQ and technical skills are approximately the same. In fact, in a 2015 study, TalentSmart found that EQ is the strongest predictor of work performance, accounting for 58% of success in all fields.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman published his seminal book Emotional Intelligence in 1995. Goleman outlined a five-part model of what constitutes EQ. Each involves a different ability in managing and understanding human emotion.

Self-awareness: This is the ability to recognize and identify personal emotions, moods and drives. It also includes the effect on others.

Self-regulation: An important part of EQ is the ability to control or deflect impulses or moods that may disrupt emotions. Also included in self-regulation is the propensity to think before acting and removing extreme emotions from judgment.

Motivation: This component involves setting clear goals and pushing toward achieving them. Having a positive attitude and forward drive is also included.

Empathy: This category describes how people recognize the feelings of others and what they do with those feelings. Individuals with high empathy will offer corresponding responses to those they care about and love.

Social skills: The final part of EQ involves the interpersonal skills people use on a daily basis. This includes collaboration, cooperation, conflict management, influence on others and handling change.

Bad Leadership Means Bad Culture

Too many managers are fixated with getting the job done that they willingly sacrifice culture. “Yeah, he’s a jerk but he’s smart and gets results.” Bad leaders tend to let a high performer's competency override their lack of civility and people skills. But these top performers are polarizing to other colleagues and create a toxic organizational culture that chokes creativity and collaboration.

Systemic toxicity results when a leader lets bad behavior go unchecked for months or years. A toxic and cancerous work environment results from a failure of leadership, starting at the top of the organization and filtering all the way down. There are few things that hurt an organization more than when leaders ignore or indulge jerky employees. Leadership must be prepared to coach the brilliant jerk “up or out,” as soon as they become aware of their problematic behavior. Immediate action confirms within the organization that leadership is holding everyone accountable, and is focused on creating a safe environment where everyone can perform at their best.

Seven Simple Steps to Solve the Problem

Take a stand against brilliant jerks by formalizing your organizational approach to addressing the brilliant jerks dilemma. Here are seven simple steps to help cure cultural cancer and toxicity:

1. No “Jerks Allowed” — Have a clear “no jerks” policy and enforce it!
2. Model Appropriate Behavior — Executive management can reform an organization’s culture by modeling the behavior they want to see in others, and by holding people accountable and rewarding proper behavior.
3. Hire for Cultural Fit — Most organizations hire employees with great technical skills, not people who are a cultural fit. Human Resources departments must change the way they recruit new employees. The focus should be the person, not the skill.
4. Compensate on Cultural Fit — Organizations need to revamp their compensation packages to include non-financial metrics such as soft skills and cultural fit.
5. Zero Tolerance for Negative Behavior — Leadership and Human Resources should have zero tolerance for behavior that violates human decency and the company culture, regardless of whether the violator is a top performer.
6. System for Safe Reporting — Leadership and Human Resources should develop a system where employees feel safe to report any incident.
7. Hire for Values and Purpose — Start hiring only people whose values and purpose fit with your culture.?

Toxicity in the workplace is costly. Unhappy or disengaged employees cost organizations billions of dollars each year in lost revenues, settlements, and other damages. Organizations need to show employees that they care and are committed to improving their workplace environment. Employees should be an organization’s greatest asset but this can only be accomplished when they feel valued, safe, and protected.

Culture comes from the top, starting with the CEO, and is exemplified by all leaders. Netflix’s culture page states their organizational philosophy on brilliant jerks this way: “On a dream team, there are no “brilliant jerks.” The cost to teamwork is just too high. Our view is that brilliant people are also capable of decent human interactions, and we insist upon that. When highly capable people work together in a collaborative context, they inspire each other to be more creative, more productive and ultimately more successful as a team than they could be as a collection of individuals.”

About the Author

Bray Brockbank is CMO and VP of Strategy for Brandegy, a specialized brand and digital marketing agency for technology companies. Bray has led marketing efforts for a wide range of B2B and B2C SaaS startups to tech enterprises. He also has served as a fractional CMO for several SaaS technology companies.