Toxic Superstars: How Brilliant Jerks Damage Teams More Than They Deliver

Toxic Superstars. Brilliant Jerks.

We all know them.

The high performers who hit every target… and leave emotional bruises everywhere they go.
The ones organisations cling to because “we can’t afford to lose them” while quietly losing everyone around them.

TOXIC / JERK BEHAVIOURS:

• “Relax, it’s just banter.”
• Interrupts. Talks over. Dominates every room.
• Volume increases as soon as they’re challenged.
• Uses charm upwards, intimidation sideways, and impatience downwards.
• Treats admin, coordination and emotional labour as “someone else’s job.”
• Claims credit publicly, assigns blame privately.
• Melts down under pressure — and everyone else has to clean it up.
• Believes policies, especially DEI, are an inconvenience.
• Thinks their results entitle them to behave however they want.
• “That’s just how they are” becomes a company slogan.

BRILLIANT / SUPERSTAR PERFORMANCE:

• The revenue generator who “keeps the business alive”
• The programme manager who always delivers (and destroys morale doing it)
• The CEO whose results look great on a graph
• The technical genius who refuses to collaborate
• The high performer whose spreadsheet hides a trail of resignations

Every organisation has one.
Some have many.

Now here’s the uncomfortable part:
When you read this…
What gender did you imagine?
What ethnicity?
What social background?
What accent or education level?
What age?

Who in the image above is most likely to be that person?
And what does that reveal about you, about us – bias, stereotypes, experience?