Managing a High-Performing, High-Drama Employee

We received the following question over at the Fast Track blog:

One of my employees is great at her job. She has about 20 years of experience on me and is truly the rock star of our team.  However, with certain deadlines, she tends to put too much pressure on herself and gets frustrated. The level of emotion, I feel, makes it even harder for her to resolve what are already difficult problems.  And she tends to involve others in her stress, which sometimes brings the whole team down. 

In the end, she always meets the deadline and solves the problem.  And she usually comes to realize how futile all the “sturm und drang” was.  Yet, inevitably the cycle repeats itself every time a new problem comes along. However, I struggle to find ways to encourage her in the moment that is helpful but not patronizing. Any tips?

Here's my answer:

It sounds like your employee has a problem with anxiety and/or worry, which can wreck havoc on her motivation and your team’s as well. You can tell her to live in the moment, but for someone who is accustomed to allowing unproductive thoughts to take over, your words may go in one ear and out the other.

I used to be very similar to the person you’re describing. For example, one summer, I worried obsessively about landing an agent to represent my new novel. Every day as I drove home during my lunch break to check the mailbox for agent responses, my blood pressure zoomed into the stratosphere.

Several weeks later, I finally recognized that my worry was out of control, and I talked about it with my husband, who is also a psychologist. He said that I should consider the worst-case scenario and resign myself to accepting that outcome if necessary.

I took his advice and imagined that I couldn’t find an agent, and that my novel would never be published. I then brainstormed ways to improve the situation. This was a hard pill to swallow at first, but I actually felt better once my mind was purged of all the what-ifs? Free from worry, I was able to concentrate rationally on new strategies for obtaining an agent.

Just because you refuse to worry about a problem doesn’t mean you are denying its existence. However, if your employee could skip the part where she plays out a thousand variations of the same drama in her head, she and everyone around her would be a lot happier.

The next time a problem scenario comes up, work with the employee to consider the best way to approach the issue rationally. Help her make a careful decision based on facts, take action, and then move on right away without all that “sturm und drang.” It may take time for her emotions to truly catch up to the strategy, but in a year, she’ll be thanking you.

For advice from the other three experts, check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.