How superstars hurt teams

Happy Thursday,

James is a General Manager in a retail business, and he was struggling with this one guy in his team. Not because he was underperforming or didn’t get along with everyone — but the opposite! This guy was the superstar of the team. He was experienced, knowledgeable, empathetic, generous, and an all-round good bloke that anyone would love to have on their team. But that was exactly the problem. He was carrying the team.

🧠 LEARN something.

In leadership, we spend so much time talking about the challenges with stragglers and poor performers that we almost completely ignore the risk of high performers. I mean, we all love having superstars on our team! Yet, like James was starting to realise, that comes with its own challenges. Superstars, no matter how well-intending and good team players, can inadvertently kill the team culture and stifle others’ growth. The team starts to become apathetic and, to put it bluntly, ‘lazy’. Psychologists call it social loafing — when people in a group expend less effort because they assume others (like the hardworking superstar) will pick up the slack and carry the team. Despite their best intentions to be helpful, the superstar ends up doing a disservice to the team.

What’s interesting, though, is that in the absence of superstars, the opposite happens (called compensatory effort), where others work harder to compensate for the missing talent. We often see this on full display in sports teams. Take the NZ Warriors this season right now. They lost club legend Shaun Johnson, marquee forward James Fisher-Harris, star winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, and not to mention Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – arguably one of the best on-field leaders in the team. On paper, that’s catastrophic. But instead of crumbling, they climbed to third on the ladder, just two competition points off the top. Why? Because when the stars were gone, the rest of the team stepped up. The benefits go beyond performance and also help team cohesion and a culture of ownership. In other words, when you lose your superstar, you’ll find your team. My question for you is this - can you find your team without losing your star?

🤔 REFLECT on an idea.

This builds nicely on what we discussed. A cohesive team of solid players who trust and support each other can outperform a group of individual superstars — who are really just single points of failure waiting to happen. Great leaders know to build champion teams, not just teams of champions.

😊 SMILE a little.

If everything rides on Steve, and you know it, Steve knows it, and everyone else knows it…

Then eventually you won’t be leading anymore. You’re managing a hostage situation… and you’re the hostage! 🤣

✅ DO IT to get results.

One way to reduce the risk of your top performers “carrying” the whole team is to adopt a “next up” mindset. It’s a common tool in sport and the military, reinforcing the idea that we win as a team, not as individuals. Choose a task or area of work and ask, “If you're away, who steps up?” If the answer is unclear, or no one can do it to the required standard, then that’s a conversation worth having. Actions beat words. If you do this regularly, it will set the right tone.

Bonus tip: Get your high performers to coach and mentor the “next person up.” It helps you build capability, and helps them let go of things without feeling threatened or devalued.

🌱 How we can support you and your team.

We provide strategic leadership solutions tailored to align with your business strategy, size, and budget. We can support your with:

• 1:1 Leadership and Performance Coaching

• Team Coaching, for high performing teams

• 1:1 Health & Lifestyle Coaching for busy stressed leaders.

• Workshops, offsites and team development.

• Or our flagship individual Leadership Coaching Programs.

Kia pai tō wiki

Kenny Bhosale

CEO & Founder, The Bridge Leaders