If you have the habit of reading popular business magazines, management books, or articles, you will definitely encounter countless references or case studies about various top performers (hyper-efficient employees) that exist in various organizations, departments, teams, etc. Of course, the definition of a top performer is a subjective term that can vary from manager to manager, or from company to company, and can be quite varied based on their personal experiences.

However, the typical examples of a top performer can range from someone who is super fast at their job, a noisy person, a flamboyant person, a know-it-all cynic, a management’s blue-eyed boy, a jargon radio, a go-to person, or even a workplace slave who comes to the office early and leaves late, and so on. Or going by the job advertisements of organizations today, a top performer is someone who meets (or claims to meet) the fancy criteria below (based on real sentences picked from some job advertisements).

1. We are looking for high-value employees dedicated to delivering innovation to assist our clients in high-performance delivery. The employee must be in a class of his or her own and raise their sights above the horizon. We are looking for top-efficient leaders who have the challenge to outdo themselves and be a winner all the way.

2. We are looking for a person to lead, motivate, and create a high-performance team capable of continuous innovation and excellence in working for a global leader.

3. We are looking for candidates who are bubbling, energetic, and invigorating to join a sales team of a global winner who can swim in an ocean of opportunities.

Every manager will unquestionably agree that having a gang of such top performers in their teams would be a great thing. However, you may be surprised to know that they can (either quickly or gradually) become your worst nightmare. Over time, and often unknown to you, they can do more harm than good, and can slowly curdle or ruin an entire team consisting of normal to good performers. What I am claiming may sound ridiculous but wait till you hear me out. Some of the top hidden reasons why a top performer can turn a team into a snake pit rather than a collaborating team are as below.

While being top-efficient is not a crime, a hyper performer can often make other team members (who work quietly without fanfare) look bad and inefficient, either intentionally or unintentionally. To understand this, just go back to your school and college days. Remember in school where a couple of smart kids would quickly shout answers before the other kids (or you) could even understand the teacher’s question? They were the class know it all heroes. And slowly those speed kids would become the teacher’s pets and the rest of the students would constantly be compared with them leading to icy jealousy. Similarly, a top performer in a team can corrode the manager’s opinion of others as they will invariably be compared to the team’s hero. But people hate being compared with others as it will make them look inferior and dull. This kills teamwork and collaboration and can lead to various internal politics.

Many may argue that having a top performer in a team can be a great source of inspiration for other team members. But the reality is far from this assumption. Constant success is a guaranteed way to gain unpopularity. Just like the omnipresent sibling rivalry among kids, a top performer in a team of co-workers will soon be viewed as someone who is hogging all the limelight and the manager’s attention or affection, while they are automatically viewed as morons being unable to do work as efficiently as the top performer. Apart from the usual feelings of envy, it can also lead to fear among coworkers. So, team members will start viewing the top performer as a danger to their survival rather than an inspirational soul.

Managers will intentionally (or unintentionally) start diverting all the juicy jobs to the top performers and the routine/mundane work to the others, thereby depriving them to get ahead or get involved. Other team members will start feeling they are getting unequal amounts of a manager’s attention and responses.

Appreciation can be intoxicating and addictive. Once a peak performer gets continuous attention and appreciation the natural tendency is to seek activities/tasks that can earn them more and more limelight or rewards. So, they will start invading other team members’ territories by finding fault in the way others work, showing off how they could handle the same job better, start giving smarter suggestions, etc., thereby making the other team members look stupid. And in many cases, top performers in their desire to remain at the top will start grabbing or even stealing good ideas and pieces of work (or even entire work) from others thereby depriving others of their rightful share of the workload, rewards, or maybe even make them lose their jobs.

Like a child that gets bored with every toy within hours or days and expects its parents to buy a new toy, top performers by nature are restless individuals constantly seeking new activities that will excite them. But a manager or an organization cannot find or invent exciting work perpetually to keep their top performers happy. And because of the halo surrounding them and the holy throne they sit on, they will be unwilling to do any ordinary and mundane work that is essential in any department. Hence, top performers will refuse, avoid, or quietly offload such dull activities to their coworkers as they start believing such menial activities are to be done only by the lesser mortals and peasants in their team. This can lead to various workload conflicts.

So, as you can see from the above points you have as much to fear about top performers as you have to fear about inefficient and troublesome workers. And such things could be happening right under your nose just waiting to explode at the most inconvenient time. Do some quiet detective work and you will see the proof for the above examples. However, if you can recognize the toxic smoke signals and apply the necessary brakes firmly and periodically, then you can ensure that everyone in the team can contribute to their strengths and weaknesses without stepping on each other’s toes. Finally, at the end of the day, one should understand those top performers can shine and bloom only because normal and good performers exist around them. And we can conclude this article with a quote that says, ‘Either top competence or top incompetence may be offensive to an establishment.’

✅ Thanks for reading. If you wish to publish this article in your Company Newsletter, Intranet, Training Material, or Website please contact me at thejendra@yahoo.com. See you soon ✅

~ 🤵 About the Author — Thejendra Sreenivas was a Technology Manager in the IT industry for nearly 30 years. He is now an Author and Book Publishing Coach and helps authors to Self-Publish their books Worldwide on Amazon and Non-Amazon retailers. He has written 30+ books on various topics. Visit his online cave — www.thejendra.com for more details.

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