What Seeds Are You Planting? Black Walnuts and Other Beautiful Antagonists
© Martha Wooding-Young, The Resilient Executive, LLC. Black walnut tree on the perimeter of Heartwood Farm
My old boss on Wall Street had few rules. Number 1 on the list was no jerks. When he took over a national team of 125 highly successful investment bankers, his first move was to squeeze out high-performing antagonists who caused problems for other team members by their behavior. The rest of us found ourselves in a happier, more cohesive, more cooperative environment. With all the confounding factors, it’s hard to measure whether the bottom line improved as these talented but unpleasant humans departed, but it certainly didn’t suffer.
Like brilliant jerks, black walnuts have their good sides. They have gorgeous, highly prized bi-colored wood and a gracious habit, and, for those who like them, their pickled fruits are a gourmet treat. But they have powerful side effects. Introduced by German immigrants to the Upcountry of South Carolina for their ability to control weeds, they produce a substance called juglone that is a known antagonist: that is, many trees, shrubs, vegetables, and flowers within a fifty-foot radius of a mature black walnut will limp along until they die, or never get established in the first place. If you just want a nice lawn, you’re fine, but if you are interested in serious biodiversity, it’s a problem. And you can’t just cut them down – the juglone can linger in the soil for up to seven years.
They have much in common with the talented jerk. These teammates may at first seem worth putting up with due to their apparently outsized contributions to visible results, but side effects can be toxic. Team morale is typically damaged, and valuable team members may leave rather than deal with the antagonist. They often create miniature versions of themselves, just like the black walnuts that freely reproduce by seed. The tech industry is littered with the carcasses of startups, some of which even went public before failing, where CEOs created cultures that mirrored their toxic personalities, and the companies eventually failed, or changed leadership to survive. Sadly, talented jerks are often tolerated. Ironically, recent research suggests that the jerks have no advantage pursuing power at work. But even after the talented jerk eventually moves on or gets pushed out, scar tissue or misguided muscle memory developed avoiding or placating them may linger on like a ghost in the machine.
We took a hard decision when we moved to the farm. There were more than a dozen mature, stately black walnuts in the south pasture. A few of them were clearly diseased, but the rest seemed healthy. As committed to regenerative conservation as we are, we decided to remove all those within the fence, and leave the few on the easement, like the one pictured above, to flourish. We were willing to give them 50 feet inside the property line, but no more.
Can you take the hard decision to confront a talented jerk? Can you see the ethical and risk management considerations embedded in that step? As the workplace evolved during my 35-year tenure on Wall Street, behavior that was par for the course in the 80s, 90s and 00s would in no way be acceptable today. Rather than waiting for the hostile work environment lawsuit from a disgruntled team member, what steps can you take to lead your way to a happier, more productive culture?
First and foremost, the antagonists need to be given a chance to re-awaken their humanity. Most of them respond instinctively to rewards and when told they won’t stay at the same pay/privilege package if they don’t take care of the how as well as the what, they will reform … or at least pretend to. Some of them simply have not yet harnessed their emotional intelligence and can be coached into playing more nicely in the sandbox. Some of them have bullied their way through life and no one has ever had the strength and grace to confront them with the upshot of their behavior.
In one situation from my old team on Wall Street, we solved the problem with the human equivalent of the outside the fence trick. We took two talented bankers who no one wanted to work for/with, one senior and one junior, and made them work exclusively with each other. They became a surprisingly productive duo, and from their relative isolation their negative impact all but disappeared.
In addition to considering whether or how the individual can be trained and/or redeployed, it’s critical to look in a clear-eyed way at the overall culture you are fostering. A post-COVID work culture article in FastCompany highlighted a few key considerations:
What signal is your own behavior, both as an individual leader and as the manager of the antagonist sending to your organization?
What does your corporate ethics statement say – and does the brilliant jerk’s behavior violate it in letter or in spirit?
On the flip side, can you find ways to showcase the contributions of leaders who build rather than destroy culture?
While you are in the process of reforming or managing out your antagonist, consider providing emotional intelligence training broadly for not just the senior leaders but for the team and/or firm as a whole. Spending on individual and team coaching and training that grows both awareness and pro-social behaviors can yield an outsize return on investment. Interesting in talking about a team culture boot-camp, or need help managing out a difficult but productive employee? Reach out.
© Martha Wooding-Young, The Resilient Executive, LLC. Beautiful antagonist, miniature copy, outside the fence at Heartwood Farm