Episode #310: Dealing With Superstars In Your Business

We are all looking to develop talent within the ranks. We invest time and treasure to boost skills and experience. We succeed. We produce outstanding individuals who can really take the business forward. Whether it is a large enterprise or a small-medium sized firm, the superstar looms large. We might think that a superstar’s influence gets dispersed inside a large company, because they have so many staff. The problem is that the numbers of superstars are relatively few and their presence inside certain divisions or sections makes them crucial to that part of the business. If it is a smaller business then the talent concentration become intense.

Superstars usually come with super egos. They may have had tiny egos at the start, but over time we have promoted them and boosted them to become the superstar they are today. What happens when they start to go rogue? Their self belief becomes vast and they want to strike out on their own. They have been cosseted inside the warm bosom of the company, but they come to believe they are bigger than the firm. How do you lock them in early with golden handcuffs, so that they won’t stray? Obviously shares in the firm, large bonuses, future equity are attractive. At what point do you do that?

There is no simple formula for the timing, because every situation is so volatile. Caution is a wise precept, so probably better to give them baubles in small doses. Try to get them on the drip feed of more goodies coming, if they behave and play nice. Too late is too late. I was talking with a very experienced small business owner who had almost been a father to his superstar. He was planning to hand over equity in the business at no cost. Before he could do that, his superstar up and quit and launched his own competitive business in the exact same space. He waited that fraction too long. There was no pulling it back either once the horse had bolted.

What about when the rogue component is about straying from the culture of the organisation. John McEnroe changed tennis by browbeating umpires. They were all walking around on eggshells, because he was a superstar who made good money for the promoters of the games. Sponsors ponied up big dough, tennis became a gladiator sport perfect for TV engrossed couch potatoes to enjoy the bloodletting. Why didn’t the first umpires facing his tirades kick him out, before he became the enfant terrible of tennis? This diminished logic is what plays out inside companies. The superstar brings in the big bucks, so the bad behaviour is tolerated, exceptions are made, excuses abound.

We spend a lot of leadership effort on alignment around a shared vision, clarifying the mission and embedding the values into the culture. Superstars get a free pass on all of this. However what is the message we are sending to the rest of the organisation? We either believe in our values or we don’t. People who don’t live the values are a cancer inside the organisation that will just grow in size. We need to cut them out, but we don’t.

There are weak accomplices inside the machine whose greed is larger than their brains. They fight for weakening the culture to keep the superstar. Often they have powerful veto power, which prevents the removal of the cancer causing superstar. Now we are locked in guerrilla warfare inside the organisation, one side for counting the money today and the other for looking to the negative long term impact on the firm.

Inside smaller firms, the loss of the superstar is immediate and devastating. Putting up with their antics is also devastating but that is more of a long term play. Get them out and don’t hesitate. Twenty paces in the town square and no blindfold. Shoot them right between the eyes and rebuild the business. Being held hostage to the superstar is folly.

The rest of the team need to be brought into the reasons why the superstar is being moved out. Talk to each one individually. This is no time for a town hall announcement. Listen to their concerns and fears. Provide them with hope that this is not the end of the world, as we know it. Come back to the values we all agreed upon. Draw a line in the sand and make it clear no matter who you are, if you don’t want to uphold the shared values of the team, then there is no place for you here. It is going to happen eventually anyway. You already know that in your heart of hearts. My advice - go hard and go early.