What a star - What a jerk

After a long stint in consulting, Jane Epstein has just become a manager at TechniCo. She's trying to get a fix on the various personalities and roles of her new coworkers, and by and large, she seems to have inherited a pret ty good team. One's got a lot of social capital built up; another seems to be a natural salesperson. Something about Andy Zimmerman, though, has her w orried. At first she can't put her finger on it maybe he's a bit too aggressive? Bu t as time passes, she watches Andy's mean streak show itself again and agai n: He belittles administrative assistants for minor mistakes, ruthlessly cu ts down colleagues when they present ideas that aren't fully developed, and makes everyone in the group feel small and stupid. But Andy has another si de: He's usually right, and he's very, very good at his job. As another man ager tells Jane, "The guy won't win any personality contests, but you'll lo ve his numbers." In fact, in terms of pure performance, he's the best Jane' s got She'd be crazy not to want him in her group. And yet, she can't deny that Andy's behavior is undermining morale and hurt ing the team's financial performance. Now Jane's feeling frustrated. When s he left her consulting job for this position, she expected to focus on numb ers, products, customers-on building something. Instead, she finds that peo ple issues are taking up most of her time. This fictional case study explores the dynamics that occur when a star perf ormer has a highly abrasive personality. Four commentators advise Jane on h ow she can curb Andy's bad behavior without hurting the team's bottom line.