When Your Star is a Jerk!
The Impact of Workplace Jerks on Team Performance
I ran across some research recently that seemed to really apply to “jerks” in the workplace. How we drive our cars has long been discussed in both traffic psychology and transportation engineering circles. Traffic psychologists study our driving styles as a habitual form of behavior by looking at several variables. The variables are time headway, acceleration and jerk driving. As I reviewed the research on driving patterns, there was a close relationship in human behavior between a “driving jerk” and a “workplace jerk” and the impact it has on human behavior.
There was a clear trade-off between “jerky” driving and time headway for the study participants. (Time headway simply means speed or time it takes to make forward progress). On average, drivers opt to either match the leader’s speed at closed distance (tailgating), necessitating more intense maneuvers when the lead vehicle accelerates or decelerates (match their jerky behavior) or they decelerate to stay further behind and regulate their speed in a more “calm” manner (give them space). (The researchers chose to substitute the word “intense” for aggressiveness”).
Jerks in the workplace do have a clear impact on others. For some, the impact will be to decelerate and remove themselves from the impact, thus reducing their headway speed. For others, they match the jerky behavior. At that point, focus is taken off making headway and placed on competition with the jerk. I used to joke with a colleague that for performance reviews we should just have two ratings:
- Did you get results? (Yes or No)
- Were you a jerk? (Yes or No)
Sometimes unfortunately, there are stars at work that are also jerks. When this Star Jerk goes unchecked for lengthy periods of time, the work team begins to look less at them and start placing more and more of their resentment and fault with management. Just some of the things that may hinder time headway (forward progress) in team performance by a star jerk are:
- Accountability
- Role modeling
- Morale
- Consensus building
- Idea generation
- Customer focus
- Meeting etiquette
- Punctuality
- Common courtesy
- Respect for line manager
What should I do as a team member to deal with the Star Jerk?
- Be clear with them about your expectations of professional behavior
- Be fact based and maintain proper demeanor
- Stay focused on your deliverables
- Avoid team complaint sessions
- Be accountable
- Discuss your concerns with your line manager
What should I do as the line manager?
- Be clear about the organization mission, vision and values
- Be a role model of the values
- Be clear about your expectations regarding behavior with the entire team and in 1:1’s
- Make sure your boss understands and is aligned and do not ask for permission
- Express appreciation for results, but make it clear that values are an important aspect of the job and that bad behavior will not be tolerated
- Explain the impact of their behavior on themselves and the team and be clear about consequences
- Provide regular coaching and feedback
- Follow through with consequences when protocol is violated
- Make sure that bad behavior is addressed in ratings and compensation and be clear how it affected them
- If the position is senior enough, consider getting an external coach to support efforts
- If you opt for a coach, work closely with them to reinforce agreed development steps
- Do not abdicate your responsibility as the line manager to someone else, especially not to your team
- Make sure you have a back-up plan should they depart, planned or unplanned
- Support your line managers if they are dealing with a Star Jerk
In the end, rarely do things work out between a workplace star jerk and the organization. This is not because the issue cannot be fixed, but because of reluctance by the line manager to deal with it. Procrastinating only makes it harder for you and for the team. In my experience, if you follow the steps above, you can change behavior.