One of the toughest questions leaders face is whether to prioritize competence or likability on their team.
The truth is, both are essential. But managing individuals who excel in one area and not the other requires a strategic approach to ensure the team succeeds as a whole.
Understanding Team Archetypes
According to a well-known Harvard Business Review study, team members can be grouped into four archetypes:
- Competent Jerks: Highly skilled but difficult to work with.
- Lovable Stars: The perfect balance of skill and likability.
- Lovable Fools: Personable, but lacking in essential skills.
- Incompetent Jerks: Neither skilled nor likable—ideally not on your team.
While Lovable Stars are the ideal, most teams are composed of a mix of these archetypes. To effectively manage this mix, it’s crucial to recognize the nuances and limitations of this model:
- People are complex and may not fit neatly into these categories.
- An individual’s behavior can vary depending on the situation or team dynamics.
- Rigidly categorizing team members can lead to fixed mindsets and hinder personal growth.
Leaders should use these archetypes only as a starting point for understanding team composition, rather than as a rigid classification system. The real challenge lies in managing highly skilled but difficult individuals and those who are personable but lack critical skills, without holding the team back or pigeonholing members into inflexible roles.
With this framework in mind, let’s explore strategies for coaching these different team member types, starting with the highly skilled but difficult individuals.
Coaching Highly Skilled, But Difficult Individuals
Highly skilled individuals who are difficult to work with often bring critical expertise, but their challenging behavior can disrupt team dynamics. The focus should be on enhancing their self-awareness and emotional intelligence to help them understand how their actions affect the broader team.
A 2022 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health provides further insight into this challenge. The research found that while technical competence is crucial, it’s the combination of task work (technical skills) and teamwork (interpersonal skills) that truly drives team performance.
The study emphasized that leaders must foster an environment where both technical proficiency and collaborative abilities are valued and developed. This underscores the importance of helping highly skilled individuals enhance their teamwork capabilities, rather than relying solely on their technical expertise.
By providing clear, constructive feedback and targeted coaching, these individuals can adjust their behavior while maintaining their valuable technical contributions. However, if their actions continue to disrupt collaboration, leaders must make decisive choices. Competence alone cannot justify behavior that negatively impacts the team’s cohesion. At some point, their long-term fit within the team may need to be reconsidered.
While managing highly skilled but difficult team members presents one set of challenges, developing those who are personable but lack critical skills requires a different approach. Let’s turn our attention to strategies for these team members.
Developing Personable, But Lacking Team Members
Personable team members often bring positivity and cohesiveness to the team, but they must develop their skills to contribute meaningfully. Structured development plans that target specific skill gaps are key. Leaders should guide these individuals through actionable steps, ensuring their likability translates into valuable contributions.
If they fail to improve, their role within the team needs to be reassessed. A positive attitude alone can’t sustain performance, and retaining underperformers without progress can lead to frustration among higher-performing colleagues.
Having examined the specific challenges posed by different team member archetypes, let’s now explore practical leadership strategies that can help create a more balanced and effective team overall.
Practical Leadership Strategies
Maximize Strengths
For highly skilled but difficult individuals, leverage their expertise in ways that minimize their negative impact on the team’s dynamics. Assign them to tasks or roles that capitalize on their technical knowledge while limiting unnecessary interactions that could create friction.
Place personable but lacking individuals in roles that benefit from their interpersonal strengths while providing clear development paths for technical growth. Encourage them to contribute to team cohesion through collaborative projects where they can apply their developing skills in a supportive environment.
Tailored Development
Each team member requires a personalized development plan. For highly skilled but difficult individuals, focus on improving self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and communication. For those who are more personable, prioritize technical skill-building. Both plans need clear timelines and OKRs to ensure accountability and progress.
Foster a Growth-Oriented Culture
Create a culture where both competence and collaboration are equally valued. Leaders should promote continuous learning, providing opportunities for all team members to develop both their technical and interpersonal skills. Foster an environment where feedback is encouraged, helping the team improve as a unit.
Aligning Team Members for Continued Success
At some point, leaders must assess whether an individual is making the necessary progress to contribute meaningfully to the team. If a team member—whether highly skilled but difficult, or personable but lacking—fails to demonstrate improvement despite coaching and development efforts, it’s crucial to reassess their fit within the team.
Leaders need to build teams that excel in both competence and collaboration. A team member who undermines either can hinder overall performance. When improvement isn’t evident, making thoughtful decisions about their future with the team may be necessary to protect long-term collective success.
Balancing competence and likability is key to sustaining a high-performing team. By developing the strengths of each individual and fostering a culture of continuous growth, leaders ensure that both team results and relationships thrive together. Ultimately, maintaining this balance helps sustain momentum and drive collective success.
Conclusion
As you assess your team’s composition, consider how to create an environment that nurtures both competence and likability. Challenge yourself to identify one team member who could benefit from targeted development in either technical skills or interpersonal abilities. By taking action today, you’re setting the stage for a more balanced, high-performing team tomorrow.
