Toxic Team Members, Hard Decisions, and Onboarding New Colleagues [Office Hours #010]

Your questions. Answered.

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of our Office Hours newsletter. Every Tuesday, we tackle reader questions covering the most demanding challenges of management and leadership. (We share our best free content on LinkedIn).

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In this week's edition, we answer:

1. How do you handle a situation where a high-performing employee has developed a toxic attitude that’s affecting team morale?

2. How do you manage decision-making when your leadership team has conflicting opinions on a critical issue?

3. How do you successfully onboard a new team member and help them integrate quickly into an established team?

Let’s get started…

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Question 1:

Mark from Los Angeles
How do you handle a situation where a high-performing employee has developed a toxic attitude that’s affecting team morale?

Response:
Dear Mark,

Dealing with a high-performing employee who has a toxic attitude is one of the most complex leadership challenges. On one hand, you don’t want to lose their strong contributions; on the other, their negativity can damage team culture, lower morale, and even drive away other valuable employees. The key is addressing the issue early with a balance of directness, empathy, and clear expectations.