The Courage to Fire Peak Performers: Why Great Leaders Choose Culture Over Toxic High Performers

What do you do when your best employee is leaving a trail of broken relationships, toxicity, and fear? In this episode, we tackle one of the toughest leadership challenges: what to do with a toxic high performer. On paper, they deliver results. But behind the scenes, their behavior, communication, and relationships erode trust, damage morale, and drive away your best people. Whether you’re a leader, HR professional, or manager, this episode will help you find the courage to protect culture over short-term wins and lead for the long haul.

Performance is visible. Culture is invisible.

Leaders can be trapped by looking at the numbers. Sales figures, bottom line impact and individual achievement tell one story. But sometimes a person’s behavior, communication, and relationships tell a different one. While your boss may want to see you deliver numbers, you cannot ignore your employees’ attitudes and ability to work on a team. A toxic star performer will eventually cost you more in turnover, morale, and lost trust than they ever contribute in output.

Why Leaders Struggle With This Decision?

Why do leaders hesitate to make this move? Two reasons: fear and short-term thinking. Fear, because firing a high performer means you might take a hit on the numbers. And short-term thinking, because it’s easier to justify today’s wins than confront tomorrow’s consequences. But if you’re serious about building something lasting, you can’t just lead for this quarter. You have to lead for the long haul.

How Toxicity Outweighs Performance

• They will drive away great employees who refuse to work in a hostile culture.

• They silence creativity because people feel unsafe speaking up.

• They will undermine your credibility as a leader because your team sees you protecting results over people.   

Harvard Business School research found that the cost of a toxic worker is twice the benefit of a top performer. That means one person’s bad behavior can undo the positive impact of two great employees.

Q: Describe a time when you worked with a toxic person. How long did leadership put up with their behavior? How did their approach toward this person make you feel? How did the team change when the person either 1) changed their behavior or 2) was removed from the team?

How Do You Find the Courage to Choose Culture Over Results?

Great leaders understand that protecting the culture is protecting the results. It takes courage to say, ‘Yes, this person is hitting targets, but they are eroding trust and morale, and that will destroy us if we don’t act.’

When you do this, you send a powerful message to your team that how you achieve results matters just as much as the results themselves. Consistently preaching this message clarity creates loyalty, alignment, and a healthier environment for everyone else.

Q: What do you think prevents leaders from addressing toxic peak performers? Are their fears valid? How can leaders of leaders encourage their teams to protect culture over results?

What Practical Steps for Leaders Facing This Decision?

1.     Address their behavior in your one-on-one discussions. Don’t just threaten them into compliance. Show them why changing their behavior will benefit them and help them reach their goals. Document both performance and behavior. Make it clear that excellence requires both.

2.     Give them feedback.  Use the collaborative feedback approach to help them uncover the answer for themselves when possible. Sometimes, toxic high performers don’t realize the impact of their behavior until it’s spelled out.

3.     Set clear boundaries. The only way you have the right to hold them accountable is if you clearly show them how they can meet your expectation and ensure they understand.

4.      Follow through! If they refuse to change, you must be willing to let them go, even if it hurts in the short term.

Application Activity

Good results without good culture indicates that there has been a breakdown in the communication of interpersonal expectations. Make a list of the expectations you have for your team that are not related to their results. What expectations do you have for communication? What expectations do you have for honesty and transparency? How do you expect team members to demonstrate respect for each other? Take some time to clarify these expectations for yourself and ask your team members what they think the expectations are. If necessary, hold a meeting to re-set these expectations for your team.