prima personalities

Managing a professional services firm, and one that is increasingly successful, means you eventually will have to deal with colleagues that develop just that little more attitude than is attractive. They are those very talented practitioners that suddenly excel and place themselves in front of the team. Success, they oddly forget, that will not have been possible without the help of their colleagues and generosity of their clients.

Now, one could argue that consulting is an isolated form of excellence, because clients like to search for help within a reputable firm, but will ultimately choose the individual. It’s basic consulting chemistry.

I was once audience to a pep-talk of a national football coach that explained why he didn’t allow for prima donna’s to manifest themselves in his team. While they may be the very reason for a string of victories, points and crowds, or in commercial terms revenue – their distance from the rest of the group is in effect limiting its collective growth in performance. And that, is detrimental for sustainable success.

I’ve seen people in teams change slowly and conveniently to facilitate the every whim of their star player, until (s)he had a bad day and everything collapsed. And guess who felt bad? Rarely the prima donna. I’m not advocating to manage everyone towards a comparable level, that would be boring and every team likes to have a star player – it’s just that these stars should remain grateful for the fact that they could not have excelled alone. And the team should not be awestruck just because one member is good at drawing attention to him or herself. A good coach will acknowledge the star, milk the moment of glory for a while, but on time ask the star for a contribution to develop the others.

In my firm we require a personal commitment. The trick is to remain personable.