How do you handle a negatively disruptive/unethical team member who is also a star performer with a virtually irreplaceable and critical skill-set?

Short-sightedness will become the ultimate downfall. Toxic behavior should not be tolerated, nor catered to. I saw first hand it completely destroy an entire team. It was ugly.

It is also not an unlikely scenario that the client would ask for this a person of this particular nature to be removed from the project.

In professional sports, what happens with that 'star' player when the team is disrupted by their behavior and attitude?

There is a similar thread which is discussing a scenario such as this:
https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...ember-Is-A-Risk

Some time a person with a great skill and innovative ideas becomes tough to others but such people are assets to company also. therefore, he may be counseled by authority at appropriate level trying to know if he has any grievance. Removing him from project must be taken as last action.

skills versatility and cross training

Happened with me, the guy was not a star performer but was irreplacable at that time. Also, he was elder to me by few years and thus hard for me to handle. I tried to enforce rules and superiority on him but failed. Later, i thought a lot about it decided that i should first win his trust by being a genuine friend to him. Once he started trusting me as a friend, he started supporting me as per my expectation. I also ensured that he had a memorable fairwell when he left which left a lasting impression on him and other teams around us. Eitger you win by heart or by mind. He was very clever so i decided to win his heart.

Hi Karthik, how interesting topic you have posted!!! In my opinion ethics has to be present in every activity related to the project. Leadership can not be understood without an ethical behavior, in consequence a bad behavior should not be allowed inside a team.

Understanding the impact on the team/project either possible decision, in my opinion, the first step should be establishing the code of conducts of the project. The second one talking and discussing with the person that is bringing the bad situation into the team (Gerald) and clarify expectations without taking him out.

If the situation persists, then separating Gerald from the team could be an election. It would be great to have a backup of Gerald before doing any final decision.

Hello Karthik: Bullying is what this sounds like to me. Bad behavior like this tears down teams and even can tear down the culture of the company. This type of behavior hurts others and can lead to symptoms for the team such as increased absenteeism, decreased presenteeism, the behavior can cause others to have health issues, it injures the self-esteem and morale of the team and can cause strong teams to lose other valuable team members. Some of peers in this post have offered some wonderful suggestions for dealing with this type of personality. Standing up against a bully is not always effective either. I'm so glad we are having these types of conversations in this community so we can bring awareness about this subject. Some suggestions for dealing with this are to intervene early - the PM has a very important role in this. The PM can speak with management and hopefully come up with a plan to support Gerald with performance evaluation and training. I would also work with HR if necessary to offer Gerald some clearly spelled out options around his behavior, all the while hoping to keep a skilled star project performer but encouraging him to understand how his behavior is hurting the team and the company. There is an old saying about how 1 rotten apple can spoil the bunch - and this sounds like an example of that......but, a skilled PM can help turn around a bad situation.