Brilliant Jerks

Product Information

Make it painful for the jerk and then let them decide whether it's worth it to change or live in pain, or find another job. In 2008, an entrepreneur leaves a tech conference in Paris. As he stands on the street, unable to hail a cab, an idea lands with the falling snow: tap a button, get a ride. The reward systems in organisations should such that jerks are not rewarded for their behavior. Managers sometimes make efforts to discourage Jerks and their dysfunction, but they then send conflicting signals about the kind of culture they want to build when jerks are rewarded by promotion.

We are all brilliant Jerks in one form or the other. As managers, the problem with managing these special class of people is our impatience in understanding that they are facing some form of challenge beyond them. We all have our good and bad sides - our strengths and weaknesses. All these can be curbed. But how? I thought with enough time and effort, Joe could evolve into a model citizen and a brilliant contributor. I worked hard with and on Joe and repeatedly failed to accept the reality — this work was all on him and not me. If he wasn’t going to adapt his style, no amount of moral suasion and outside coaching was going to help. If absolutely everything has been done to help someone to correct their behaviour and hit performance targets – and I do mean everything – then managers should work with their HR/people department to start the performance management process.

Who are the creative team of Brilliant Jerks?

Some people are clearly toxic. Other times, their status as a jerk can be a little more subjective. We’ve probably all been a jerk throughout the course of our lives. It’s important to factor different personalities and styles into your assessment of what is going on. Often this means that managers will need to step outside their comfort zone when it comes to communication, but discomfort is where leadership lives. Empathy should be at the heart of ensuring that people know what they have to do and how they have to do it. Help people to be more self-aware Todd Stark mused about how much we really know about brilliant jerks and how to manage them. As he put it, "I think we need to learn more about this type of person to deal with this phenomenon. We need to learn more about specifically how these folks bring something valuable into the organization and specifically how to minimize the damage," Stark wrote. "Many companies are run by 'jerks' and some of the most successful projects in the world have been accomplished by 'jerks.'"

From award-winning writer Joseph Charlton (ANNA X, Industry), this fast, touching and scandal-driven show is based on the creation of a multi-billion-dollar app, which you might even use to get home afterwards… If you feel you are forced into this situation, it’s time to talk with your boss. Their response will speak volumes about the culture of your organization. If your concerns fall on deaf ears and the behaviors are excused in the pursuit of performance, you’ve either got a bad manager or you’re in a toxic culture. Either way, you might want to consider a move to a new role or firm. Where are you right now? Somewhere in the middle, right? Unless you’re on the Fortune list of great cultures, where organisations continually put time, effort and money into evolving the way that things get done to meet the challenges of today, then it’s likely that the culture can switch between vibrant, combatant, pleasant and stagnant on a daily basis. If you are the manager of a brilliant jerk, then you should be looking at yourself and asking whether you’ve done enough to set expectation around behaviour and work quality. In my experience, not setting expectation is one of the most prevalent root causes of poor behaviour.Unfortunately for many people, they’re too little, too late, and not holistic enough. The experience often leaves people feeling lots of unwanted emotions – anger, frustration, self-doubt, reduced motivation, and perhaps worst of all, that the assessment itself was unfair or biased. Over a decade ago, Reed Hastings formally announced that Netflix’s HR policy would no longer support the hiring of brilliant jerks, saying: “Some companies tolerate them. For us, the cost to effective teamwork is too high.” Creates opportunities for others to share their voice and makes sure teammates feel valued and included And then, the debate begins on whether to fire or rehabilitate Joe. I bet you have a “Joe” in your workplace: Why do managers ignore their toxicity? Even if by some error, some jerk-minded guy sneaks into an organisation, a performance management system that focuses more on team goals, team learning and shared vision and purpose will ensure that the jerk-minded recruits find no fodder to feed their appetites and that no jerks are created and nurtured internally.