Key Highlights:
- Disruptive employees can quietly erode team trust, psychological safety, and company culture—even if they are top performers.
- Psychological safety is critical: its absence results in disengagement, silence, and turnover.
- Addressing disruptive behavior early is essential; waiting often leads to irreversible damage.
- Coaching is a powerful and proactive intervention, but the employee must take ownership of the change.
- Leaders must set the standard and create a culture of accountability, not silence.
- Disruption isn’t always loud or obvious; passive behaviors, such as sarcasm and withdrawal, can be equally destructive.
- With guidance and support, many disruptive employees can become culture champions.
In today’s high-pressure business environment, leaders often find themselves asking, How do I manage someone who delivers results but damages the team? The tension between performance and behavior is especially acute when dealing with a disruptive employee. While their metrics may shine, the cost to morale, retention, and culture is frequently underestimated—and often overlooked until it’s too late.
As an executive coach with over two decades of experience, I’ve been called in countless times to address this very challenge. The request often sounds like this: “He’s a great engineer, but…” or “She’s our top physician, but…” That “but” is always the warning sign. What follows is rarely about competence; it’s about behavior, relationships, and the psychological safety of a team.
What is a Disruptive Employee?
Let’s be clear: disruptive employees are not individuals who challenge ideas or speak up in healthy ways. They are not the ones pushing innovation or asking the tough questions. True disruption occurs when someone undermines trust, silences others’ voices, and disrupts the cultural fabric of a team. These individuals often operate from a place of power, formal or informal, and exert control through dominance, unpredictability, passive aggression, or belittlement.
The most damaging aspect? They erode psychological safety.
Psychological safety is the shared belief that it’s safe to speak up, admit mistakes, or offer differing views. When this is compromised, employees go silent. They disengage. They stop contributing, not because they lack ideas, but because they believe those ideas and their dignity are not safe.
The Hidden Cost of Silence
Many leaders underestimate the long-term impact of a single disruptive employee. I’ve seen strong, capable teams go quiet in meetings because one individual dominates the conversation or subtly undermines their peers. I’ve watched nine highly educated, high-performing professionals fall mute the moment a particular colleague joins the Zoom call. One person can halt progress. One person can shift the tone of an entire department. And the worst part? It often occurs quietly through sarcasm, silence, withdrawal, or eye-rolling.
As leaders, we may miss it because we’re looking for overt aggression. But the truly damaging behaviors are often subtle, persistent, and corrosive.
Why Don’t We Just Let Them Go?
It’s a fair question. If someone is harming the culture, why not remove them?
The answer is complicated. Disruptive employees are often also high performers. They may bring in revenue, clients, or acclaim. They might be known for catching what others miss. Their brilliance usually becomes their shield.
But cutting ties too quickly can send shockwaves. It can signal to other team members that high standards will be punished, that tenure means little, or that leadership lacks patience. Conversely, failing to act sends another toxic message: poor behavior will be tolerated if results are high enough.
The Case for Coaching
Here’s the truth: the best time to intervene is early. The biggest challenge I face when coaching disruptive employees is being brought in too late. By then, performance improvement plans have failed, trust is broken, and options are limited. But when addressed proactively, with coaching, candor, and accountability, the transformation can be extraordinary.
And here’s something most people don’t expect: coaching a disruptive employee isn’t just about the individual. It’s about your culture. It’s about demonstrating to the entire organization that feedback leads to growth, not exile.
I’ve seen disruptive employees become cultural champions. I’ve watched them shift from being the source of tension to the catalyst for positive change. However, that shift only occurs when the employee takes full ownership of their behavior, without apology. And they must understand that while circumstances may explain their actions, they do not excuse them.
What’s Required from Leadership?
While coaching supports change, the responsibility of setting the tone rests with leadership. Leaders must be willing to:
- Define and communicate clear behavioral standards
- Address concerns early and consistently
- Understand the root causes of behavior without excusing them
- Create environments where feedback is safe and expected
- Empower employees to grow rather than punish them prematurely
The road to change is not quick, and it is not guaranteed. But it is almost always worth attempting. Why? Because culture matters. Engagement matters. And your best people, those quietly holding back or quietly walking out, are watching.
Addressing disruption isn’t just a reactive measure. It’s a cultural investment. One that signals to your organization that performance and integrity are not mutually exclusive.
And when you commit to both, you don’t just remove a problem. You unlock potential.
To learn more, visit my site here: https://dianescottinc.com/executive-coaching/
