As a business owner or founder, one of the most challenging situations you may face is dealing with toxic behavior from your top performer. On paper, this individual is invaluable to your organization—whether it’s because of their sales figures, project delivery, or other key results. But their behavior is creating ripples of disruption that can undermine the health and performance of the entire team. Ignoring or excusing their toxicity because of their high performance is a dangerous trap that can lead to long-term damage in your organization.

In this blog post, we will discuss what constitutes toxic behavior, why it’s harmful to your organization, and most importantly, practical steps to deal with it.

What Is Toxic Behavior?

Toxic behavior in the workplace comes in many forms, but it always has one thing in common: it undermines team morale, collaboration, and productivity. Some of the most common types of toxic behavior include:

• Backstabbing, criticizing, and blaming: A toxic individual might deflect blame for their own mistakes or intentionally point fingers at others to protect themselves.
• Gossiping and spreading rumors: They may engage in rumor-mongering, which leads to tension and mistrust among team members.
• Agreeing in meetings but not following through afterward: This behavior can create confusion and delay progress.
• Hoarding information: Keeping valuable knowledge to themselves rather than sharing it with the team, resulting in inefficiencies and misunderstandings.
• Purposely undermining others: Setting others up for failure to highlight their own superiority.
• Caring only about personal agendas: Prioritizing personal success over team or company goals.

Take Vanessa, a team leader, as an example. She spread gossip and intentionally set her team against another group in the organization, referring to them as “her soldiers.” While she continued to meet her individual performance targets, her actions eroded trust, created silos, and ultimately damaged collaboration between departments.

Why You Don’t Want These Behaviors in Your Organization

Toxic behavior from a top performer can have severe long-term consequences on the overall health of your organization. High-performing teams thrive on strong personal relationships, and research shows that these relationships account for 70% of variance in team performance. Toxic behavior undercuts the following critical factors:

• Collaboration: Teams need to work together seamlessly, but gossip, backstabbing, and undermining behaviors can create divisions and silos.
• Trust: Toxicity erodes trust within teams, making it harder for people to rely on one another.
• Norms of Conduct: Healthy organizations have established norms of behavior that guide interpersonal interactions. A toxic performer’s behavior can start to shift those norms in a damaging direction.
• Team Commitment: When toxic behavior goes unchecked, it sends the message that achieving individual success is more important than teamwork, leading to disengagement and reduced commitment from other employees.

Let’s take a real-world example: In one organization, a highly toxic performer’s actions led to reduced collaboration and ultimately affected the company’s ability to serve its clients effectively. Materials failed to arrive on time because people were hesitant to communicate and resolve issues together. Trust disintegrated, and rumors even impacted personal relationships, with one employee fearing for their marriage due to rumors of an affair. The toxic culture resulted in a bad atmosphere where valuable time was lost in dealing with the fallout from such behavior.

What If They Are a High Performer?

It’s tempting to think, “But they bring in results!” However, allowing toxic behavior to persist because someone is a top performer can have long-term detrimental effects. If you allow bad behavior because someone is a “superstar,” you’re implicitly saying that results are more important than how those results are achieved.

If you don’t address this toxic behavior, several negative outcomes are likely:

• People will leave: Your best employees, who value a positive work environment, will not stick around to tolerate this behavior.
• Loss of faith in leadership: When you don’t address toxic behavior, you lose credibility as a leader. Others in the organization may question your judgment and commitment to the values you’ve set.
• Drives the wrong behavior: When toxic individuals are rewarded solely for their performance metrics, it tells the rest of the team that results matter more than relationships, trust, or respect.

For instance, in another organization, a toxic high-performer’s behavior led to multiple people resigning. Those who stayed behind lost faith in the leadership team, and the culture became one where people began to prioritize personal success over the health of the team.

How to Prevent Toxic Behavior in Your Organization

To prevent toxic behavior from developing—especially among top performers—your organization needs clearly defined norms of conduct. These norms should decouple results from behavior. A high performer should not get a free pass for creating a hostile or toxic environment.

Here’s how to establish these norms and ensure they’re upheld:

1. Define Clear Behavioral Expectations

Set clear guidelines on how employees are expected to behave with each other, especially in terms of collaboration, communication, and respect. Ensure these are included in your performance evaluations alongside traditional metrics like sales or project delivery.

Practical Tips:

• Integrate behavioral standards into your hiring and onboarding processes.
• Discuss behavioral expectations in performance reviews.
• Make leadership accountable for enforcing these standards.

Sample Phrases:

• “In addition to meeting your KPIs, it’s important that we maintain a culture of respect and collaboration.”
• “Let’s talk about how we can ensure your success is balanced with team harmony.”

2. Provide Continuous Feedback

Toxic behavior often creeps up because of a lack of continuous feedback. Provide regular, honest feedback to your employees about both their performance and their behavior.

Practical Tips:

• Schedule regular one-on-ones to discuss not just work results, but also team dynamics and relationships.
• Address toxic behaviors immediately when they arise, rather than waiting for formal performance reviews.

Sample Phrases:

• “I’ve noticed some tension in how you communicate with your team. Let’s work on improving this.”
• “Your performance is great, but there are some concerns with how you handle conflicts in the team.”

3. Don’t Let Results Excuse Toxicity

Establish a zero-tolerance policy for toxic behavior, regardless of someone’s performance level. Make it clear that how work is done is just as important as the end results.

Practical Tips:

• Include behavioral goals in your performance assessments.
• Offer leadership training focused on emotional intelligence and collaboration.

Sample Phrases:

• “It’s important to recognize that both results and relationships matter in this organization.”
• “We need to address this behavior, as it’s affecting the team’s overall performance.”

4. Create a Safe Environment for Reporting

Toxic behavior often goes unchecked because people are afraid to speak up. Create an open and safe environment where employees can report issues without fear of retaliation.

Practical Tips:

• Introduce anonymous feedback mechanisms.
• Train managers to handle complaints impartially and confidentially.

Sample Phrases:

• “We value transparency and encourage open communication if any issues arise.”
• “Please don’t hesitate to come to me or HR if you experience any inappropriate behavior.”

5. Lead by Example

As a business owner or founder, your behavior sets the tone for the entire organization. Model the behaviors you want to see from your employees. Your team will follow your lead if you prioritize respect, collaboration, and integrity in your actions.

Practical Tips:

• Demonstrate empathy and understanding in your interactions.
• Address conflicts directly and professionally.

Sample Phrases:

• “Let’s work together to resolve this in a way that maintains team harmony.”
• “I expect myself and all leaders in this organization to embody our values of respect and integrity.”

Conclusion: Taking Action for Long-Term Success

Dealing with toxic behavior—especially from a top performer—is tough, but it’s essential for protecting your organization’s culture and long-term success. Allowing toxicity to persist sends a dangerous message that results are more important than the well-being of the team. By addressing toxic behavior early, establishing clear norms, providing continuous feedback, and leading by example, you can create a work environment that values both performance and positive, healthy relationships.