Is your top performer your biggest risk?
The Behaviour Blind Spot

Imagine this (or is it already happening) – You’ve got a top performer – let’s call them Dakota. They hit every KPI, dominate the sales leader board, and your clients love them. They are your “must-have” for the big pitches. Promotions? They’re the obvious choice. But six months later, you’re dealing with team churn, a culture dip and stagnant innovation.

What happened? Dakota didn’t change, but your perspective did.

Here’s the Blind Spot:  Excellence has overshadowed personal impact

What do we mean? Top performers often bring the drive, the focus and the results, which is brilliant. BUT, there’s a danger when performance becomes the only lens we look through. Here’s where the behaviour blind spot kicks in:

Unconscious Bias: We overvalue output and ignore how it’s achieved. If Dakota bulldozers over peers to win deals, we might call it “drive”  but it is “disrespect.”

Halo Effect: Because Dakota excels in one area, we assume they’re great in all areas, including leadership, teamwork, and even strategy.

Fear Factor: Teams are less likely to challenge or offer feedforward to top performers. Psychological safety suffers and innovation takes a hit.

Business Impact

According to the Gallup report “state of the Global Workplace 2024”, teams with low psychological safety are 27% less likely to innovate. When one person dominates discussions even shuts others down, sometimes unintentionally,  you’re left with a team of “yes people” not the biggest problem-solvers.

What can YOU do? First let’s remind ourselves that performance is what someone does. Behaviour is how they do it. If you’re not measuring behaviour, you’re only managing half the performance.

Behavioural profiles can reveal whether someone’s drive is balanced with empathy and this may highlight where high performers might unintentionally create friction (blind spots).

A top sales performer and a sales leader require different behavioural strengths. Don’t assume one can do the other.

Give quieter team members structured space and the permission to speak. Send a meeting agenda ahead of the meeting, even ask for input – possible questions ahead fo the meeting.

Celebrate collaboration, coaching and inclusive leadership as much as hitting the target. For some it is about the journey as a team not as an individual.

Dakota might still be your star performer, but if they’re burning out your team, stifling new ideas or blocking culture evolution – that star could become a fireball.

Behavioural insights won’t just protect your people – they’ll future-proof your business.

Want help identifying your team’s blind spots? Let’s talk behaviour. 👑

#QueenOfBehaviours #HumanBehaviour #Leadership #TeamDynamics #PsychologicalSafet